Now that Craig Carpenito has assumed the job of U.S. attorney for New Jersey on an interim basis, observers are confident that he'll get a presidential appointment to the position—some day—but the slow pace of the nomination process is seen as puzzling.

Carpenito, a former federal prosecutor and partner at Alston & Bird in New York, assumed the job of U.S. attorney on an interim basis on Jan. 5 after he was appointed by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. He took the post just as acting U.S. Attorney William Fitzpatrick was reaching a 300-day statutory limit on his service in that capacity.

But Carpenito has yet to receive a formal nomination to the job from the White House, nearly a year after President Donald Trump took office and 10 months after the previous U.S. attorney, Paul Fishman, was one of 46 people in that position nationwide who were asked to resign.

“It has been a long time,” said Alan Zegas, a Summit, New Jersey, attorney who frequently practices in the state's federal court. ”My guess is most people will view him as the next U.S. attorney, even though he's only nominated temporarily. I would think something would have been said to him [assuring him that he would get the nomination]—he was working at a large firm. In order for him to give that up, he would have to have some assurance.”

Carpenito is widely expected to receive the White House's nod for U.S. attorney, but the nomination for New Jersey's top federal law enforcement official is believed to be linked to other nominations to fill some or all of the three vacancies on the District of New Jersey's bench. The New Jersey nominations could also be linked to candidates in New York's jurisdiction.

“The grapevine suggests there is a package deal of judges and U.S. attorneys and that the design is to get them all through at one time,” said Scott McBride, a former assistant U.S. attorney in Newark who is now with Lowenstein Sandler in Roseland, New Jersey.

“The process [of appointing a U.S. attorney] is primarily political, and my understanding is there is some type of political negotiating involving a group of potential nominees—a package,” said McBride. “They needed more time and the statute which allows an acting U.S. attorney has a certain time frame.” he said.

Under Trump, the White House has announced U.S. attorney nominations in groups of four or more. The process may also be held up by issues in other jurisdictions, such as the Southern District of New York and the Eastern District of New York, which were also among the 16 other districts where Sessions appointed interim U.S. attorneys on the same day he tapped Carpenito, said McBride.

In the Southern District of New York, Sessions appointed Geoffrey Berman, a New Jersey resident and attorney with Greenberg Traurig in New York, on an interim basis on the same day he appointed Carpenito.

Berman was previously seen as a front-runner for the post of U.S. attorney in New Jersey before he got the nod for the Southern District post. He is a law partner of former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, a Trump ally.

But New York's Democratic senators, Kirsten Gillibrand and Charles Schumer, have expressed reservations about Berman, according to press accounts. They cite Trump's active role in interviewing Berman for the job, noting that the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York would have jurisdiction over any investigation of Trump.

The nominations of Carpenito and Berman appear to have good prospects, said Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond who studies federal prosecutors.

But another person familiar with the nomination process said the interim appointment of Carpenito suggests that the White House is not proceeding with the nomination because Sens. Robert Menendez and Cory Booker find him an unacceptable candidate and that any deal combining judicial nominations and the U.S. attorney nomination has fallen apart. The interim appointment of Carpenito lasts 120 days, and if he fails to get a nomination, he could be appointed to the post by a vote of the state's federal judges, this person said.

“Part of the problem is people view him as Christie's guy,” this person said.

Tobias said Carpenito's interim appointment could hamper his ability to exercise leadership over the office, given the unpredictable nature of the Trump administration.

McBride, however, said the interim appointment would have a “negligible” effect on his ability to carry out his agenda in the office.

“That office has presumed he was going to take the helm any day for a few months now. The interim appointment was just confirmation of that. I think everybody understands he's ultimately going to be the guy. It would be a shock if he were replaced by someone else,” McBride said.