Acting N.J. attorney general is Marlton resident

Gov. Christie has named John Jay Hoffman of Marlton to serve as acting attorney general of New Jersey during Jeffrey S. Chiesa's service in the U.S. Senate.

Hoffman, 47, was executive assistant attorney general under Chiesa before his appointment, announced Monday.

Christie did not say why he passed over Chiesa's deputy, Thomas R. Calcagni, who would remain first assistant attorney general.

Earlier in the day, Vice President Biden swore in Chiesa to fill the seat left vacant by the death June 3 of Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg. The first Republican to represent New Jersey in the Senate since 1982, Chiesa will serve until voters elect a new senator in a special October election.

Christie has not said whether he would return Chiesa to the attorney general's post after he has left the Senate.

Under Chiesa, Hoffman served as acting attorney general for civil cases during the attorney general's absences or recusements, and on a regular basis oversaw the Division of Law and Public Safety and departments regulating civil insurance fraud and gaming.

Hoffman was not available for comment Monday. In a statement, he said he would continue to work from Chiesa's agenda.

Between 2006 and 2012, Hoffman was an assistant attorney in the U.S. Attorney's Office for New Jersey, where he specialized in white-collar and economic prosecutions. For two of those years, he served under Christie, who was U.S. attorney from 2002 to 2008. Chiesa also worked in the U.S. Attorney's Office with Christie.

Hoffman previously worked in Washington as a trial lawyer for the civil division of the U.S. Department of Justice, and in private practice for the firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld.

In 2004, he and his wife bought a home for $790,000 on a golf course in Marlton.

He graduated in 1987 from Colgate University and in 1992 from Duke University School of Law. He later clerked for Judge Al Engel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.