Senate confirms Assistant U.S. Attorney Laura Provinzino to be next Minnesota federal judge

Minnesota officially has a new federal judge after the U.S. Senate on Thursday approved President Joe Biden’s nomination of Assistant U.S. Attorney Laura Margarete Provinzino with a bipartisan vote less than two months before Election Day.

Biden picked Provinzino in June to replace Judge Wilhemina Wright, who was once on a shortlist for the U.S. Supreme Court before retiring at the beginning of this year.

Provinzino was selected from a list of candidates sent by Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith that was gathered by a judicial selection committee chaired by former Minnesota Appeals Judge Lucinda Jesson.

Provinzino was confirmed in a 54-41 floor vote.

Chief U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz, who will swear in Provinzino at a date yet to be announced, called her a “welcome addition to our Court.”

“She has been appearing before our judges for almost 15 years, and she has skillfully handled some of the most difficult cases prosecuted in our District,” Schiltz said in a statement.

“She is exceptionally smart, she is an elegant writer, she is always well prepared, and she treats everyone she encounters with kindness. These traits will serve her well in her new role.”

A victory by former President Donald Trump in the Nov. 5 election could have thrown Provinzino’s nomination into uncertainty. Klobuchar said bipartisan support for Provinzino, which included law enforcement, helped her advance through the confirmation process more quickly than the more than a dozen other nominees still awaiting a full vote.

“It isn’t easy getting someone confirmed before the election,” Klobuchar said in an interview after the vote. “So just because there’s a bunch of them that are held up right now, I wanted to make sure that we put forward someone who was a stellar nominee.”

Smith congratulated Provinzino in a statement and said her “decades of experience advancing justice and protecting the rule of law will make her an exceptionally well-qualified” judge.

Klobuchar has emphasized Provinzino’s St. Cloud roots and that she has spent her entire legal career in Minnesota. Provinzino has worked as a federal prosecutor in Minnesota since 2010. She was part of the prosecution team that won a child sex trafficking conviction of GOP operative Anton Lazzaro last year and prosecuted a Thai-based international sex trafficking conspiracy that victimized hundreds of women.

For the latter prosecution, Provinzino received the Attorney General’s David Margolis Award for Exceptional Service, the top award given by the Justice Department to its employees.

“I am so proud that, after a long and distinguished career as a prosecutor, Laura Provinzino will now serve our community as a federal judge,” U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger said in a statement. “We are fortunate that she will continue to serve the cause of justice in this new and critical role.”

Provinzino, 48, was one of three prosecutors who secured Lazzaro’s guilty verdict. The businessman and former Republican activist was sentenced to 21 years in prison on charges involving five 15- to 16-year-old girls who he paid to have sex with him.

Before joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota, Provinzino served as a law clerk for Eighth Circuit Judge Diana Murphy in 2003-2004 and worked as an associate at Robins Kaplan. Her education includes a law degree from Yale Law School, a Rhodes Scholarship to attend Oxford University and a bachelor’s degree with honors from Lewis & Clark College.