New Jersey First Assistant Attorney General Andrew Bruck.
By Blake Nelson and Brent Johnson | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
Gov. Phil Murphy has appointed Andrew Bruck, the state’s leading assistant attorney general, to be New Jersey’s top law enforcement official for the rest of the year.
Bruck, 38, will serve as the state’s acting attorney general until Murphy’s term ends in January. The Democratic governor is running for re-election in November.
Bruck succeeds Gurbir Grewal, who has been New Jersey’s longest-serving attorney general in decades but announced Tuesday he was stepping down to investigate financial misconduct with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the federal agency that regulates financial markets.
A graduate of Princeton University and Stanford Law School, Bruck worked at the U.S. Department of Justice and in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey before joining the state attorney general’s office.
“Over the last three and a half years, he has played in a leading role in our efforts to build trust between communities and law enforcement and to stand up for New Jersey’s residents in the face of attacks from Washington, D.C.,” Murphy said Wednesday at his latest coronavirus briefing in Trenton.
“Andrew’s a star,” the governor added during his radio show later in the evening.
Bruck is the first known openly gay attorney general in state history, at a time when officials are apologizing for the office’s past treatment of LGBTQ residents.
“This reflects our continuing commitment to ensuring that our state government reflects the rich diversity of our people,” Murphy said.
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