The White House is ready to nominate Greenberg Traurig lawyer Geoffrey Berman as the next U.S. attorney from New Jersey, but supporters of Alston & Bird's Craig Carpenito are making a push for their candidate, according to several people familiar with the search process.

Berman's supporters include fellow Greenberg Traurig lawyer Rudolph Giuliani, a stalwart of Donald Trump's campaign, those people said. But Gov. Chris Christie and Republican members of the state's congressional delegation prefer Carpenito, who was Christie's colleague in the U.S. Attorney's Office before going into private practice, they said.

Berman, 57, has an impressive resume. From 1990 to 1994, he was an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York, handling tax and securities violations. Before that, he was associate counsel in the Office of Independent Counsel-Iran Contra, where he prosecuted a former CIA employee for tax fraud.