[Photo: by Daniel Acker / NYPost]

President Trump will most likely appoint Marc Mukasey as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, replacing Preet Bharara. Doing so would conveniently “kill 2 birds with a single stone.” When asked by NYMagazine whether he would recuse himself from the Fox News investigation if appointed, Mukasey had “no comment.”

In appointing Mukasey, Trump would …

• bring on a loyal, Republican attorney who has worked closely with Trump confidant Rudy Giuliani. See Mukasey’s bio from the GTLaw site.

• be doing a solid favor for family friend, Rupert Murdoch, whose Fox News division is the current target of a high-profile investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s office. Mukasey’s client list includes Roger Ailes, former Fox News boss who quit over several sexual harassment suits.

MURDOCH CONNECTION.    Bharara’s office had been looking into "a number of potential crimes, including whether Fox News executives broke laws by allegedly obtaining journalists' phone records or committed mail and wire fraud by hiding financial settlements paid to women who accused Roger Ailes of sexual harassment."

MARC MUKASEY BIO – FROM GTLAW.    Marc Mukasey, 49, is a shareholder with Greenberg  Traurig Law, which he joined along with Rudy Giuliani in 2016 from Bracewell Giuliani. He serves as Global Co-Chair of the firm’s White Collar Defense & Special Investigations Practice. Marc defends corporations and executives facing allegations of securities fraud, FCPA violations, FIRREA (Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act of 1989), antitrust violations, environmental crimes, money laundering, bribery, mail/wire fraud, tax offenses and other business crimes.

Marc is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers who has tried an array of criminal cases and has also convinced prosecutors to abandon investigations before they are made public and before charges are filed – behind the scenes. Marc is Chambers-rated and was named by Law360 as an MVP of the Year in the White Collar category for 2013 and 2014 and a 2015 Trailblazer in the area of White Collar Crime by The National Law Journal.

Prior to joining Greenberg Traurig, Marc served 8 years in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, where he held supervisory positions as a Unit Chief and Deputy Chief Appellate Attorney. In 2003 and 2005, he received the Justice Department's award for Superior Performance by an Assistant U.S. Attorney. From 1993 through 1996, Marc served as a staff attorney at the SEC, where he prosecuted a full range of securities law violations.

Marc received his Bachelor’s from Dartmouth and his JD from Cardozo Law.

Marc’s father is Michael Mukasey, who was appointed U.S. Attorney General by President George W. Bush in 2007, and who has served as a chief judge in Manhattan federal court.