Ex-Obama AG Eric Holder wades into New York’s chief judge battle, supports Senate following rejection of LaSalle

Former U.S. attorney general Eric Holder is in the New York state Senate’s corner when it comes to the contentious battle over Gov. Hochul’s chief judge pick.

Holder called Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers) on Thursday to offer support and discuss the impasse over Hochul’s nomination of Justice Hector LaSalle to lead the Court of Appeals following the Senate Judiciary Committee’s rejection of his appointment two weeks ago, multiple sources told the Daily News.

The nation’s top prosecutor under former president Barack Obama is now chairman of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, which focuses on Dem redistricting efforts.

It wasn’t immediately clear if Holder was offering legal advice or merely voicing support for the Senate’s actions on the matter.

“I had a useful, private conversation with the Senator — no further comment,” Holder told the Daily News through a spokesman.

The call comes as Hochul continues to mull her next steps and the possibility of legal action remains on the table while Stewart-Cousins and other Dem lawmakers maintain the chamber fulfilled its constitutional duty by voting down LaSalle through a committee vote.

Hochul, however, believes LaSalle is entitled to a vote before the full Senate and supporters have floated the idea of a lawsuit to force lawmakers to act.

There was no indication of the stalemate easing on Wednesday as the governor unveiled her executive budget blueprint and potential battles over bail, housing, taxes and charter schools are on the horizon.

“Working on our budget,” the governor said when asked about LaSalle’s nomination following her budget presentation. “Weighing all the options.”

A day earlier Stewart-Cousins said she and the governor had not spoken since the committee vote.

The unprecedented move by the recently expanded Senate committee followed a bitter public battle over LaSalle’s judicial record as progressive lawmakers, union leaders and other advocates vocally opposed his appointment and painted him as too conservative to lead the state’s sprawling judiciary.

Holder is the highest-profile Dem to come out in support of the Senate after Hochul enlisted the likes of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and other top party members to rally around LaSalle ahead of the committee vote.

Former chief judge Jonathan Lippman is among those supporters who think LaSalle didn’t get a fair shake and said two weeks ago he believes a full floor vote will take place “one way or another.”

LaSalle, who would have been the first Latino chief judge in New York and currently serves as the presiding justice of the 2nd Appellate Division in Brooklyn, faced fierce pushback from a wide range of opponents who argued the former prosecutor’s judicial records showed him to be anti-union, anti-reproductive rights and overall too conservative for the post.

More than a dozen Senate Dems openly opposed the appointment ahead of the committee vote.

Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal (D-Manhattan), the chairman of the judiciary committee, and others argue that while the state Constitution instructs the governor to get the “advice and consent” of the Senate on nominations it also grants each house in the Legislature the power to set its own rules.

It was the first time in state history that a governor’s pick for chief judge was rejected by lawmakers since the current process has been in place since 1977.