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In Attorney General William Barr’s most recent public assessment, Geoffrey Berman was doing an exemplary job as Manhattan’s chief federal prosecutor.
There was talk of naming him to another weighty position in the Trump administration, including chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission or chief of the Justice Department’s Civil Division in Washington.
“With tenacity and savvy, Geoff has done an excellent job leading one of our nation’s most significant U.S. Attorney’s Offices,” Barr said late Friday night, adding that the prosecutor had achieved “many successes on consequential civil and criminal matters.”
The only problem: Berman, whose office has prosecuted and investigated several of President Donald Trump’s allies, had no interest in leaving to make way for the president’s favored replacement – current SEC Chairman Jay Clayton, whose resume is absent any previous experience as a prosecutor.
Less than 48 hours after a battle for control of the Justice Department’s most prestigious office ended with Trump ordering Berman’s dismissal, the urgency of the administration’s action has not been fully explained.
By some accounts, Clayton had expressed interest in the Manhattan post to both Barr and Trump while preparing to leave the SEC. Others have suggested that the abrupt move, initially revealed on another late Friday night, mimicked the recent actions to remove a number of government watchdogs cast as disloyal or a threat to the administration.
Barr announced then that Berman was “stepping down” to make way for Trump’s intended nomination of Clayton, prompting the prosecutor to fire back that he had “no intention” of resigning. The standoff was ultimately broken Saturday when Trump formally dismissed Berman, who indicated that he would not challenge the action.
“The common theme in this multi-trade proposal,” said a person familiar with the matter, “is a desire to get Geoff Berman out of the Southern District of New York.”
Lawmakers on Sunday continued to raise questions about the sudden removal of the prosecutor who oversaw the prosecution of Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, and who also is managing investigations of the president’s current lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, along with two of Giuliani’s former business associates.
“You really have to question this Friday night attempted massacre – now completed one,” House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., told NBC’s Meet the Press.
Schiff pointed to Berman’s initial refusal to resign in which the prosecutor referenced ongoing investigations within his office and his desire to advance them “without delay or interruption.”
The prosecutor did not elaborate on the nature of specific inquiries, but his ultimate ouster comes just days after former Trump national security adviser John Bolton revealed in a book that the president once sought to interfere in an investigation of a Turkish bank to pacify Turkey’s president, Recep Erdogan. The inquiry is being led by Berman’s now-former office.
“Berman clearly had a concern for why he was being pushed out,” Schiff said.
Separately, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the vice-chairman of the Intelligence Committee, told CBS’s “Face the Nation” that the Justice Department, under Barr’s leadership, has “repeatedly” intervened in politically-sensitive cases.
Earlier this year, the attorney general overruled prosecutors to recommend a lighter prison sentence for Trump adviser Roger Stone. More recently, he has become embroiled in an effort to abandon the prosecution of former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn.
In both cases, the attorney general’s action drew a hail of criticism and sharp rebukes from a court-appointed arbiter in the Flynn case who called the Justice Department action a “gross abuse” of power.
“So, there seems to be a pattern from this administration that the president and his henchman, Mr. Barr, are willing to get rid of anyone that’s investigating people that get close to Donald Trump,” Warner said, adding that he had no direct evidence that the removal was connected to ongoing investigations.
In a Saturday letter informing Berman of his dismissal, Barr rejected the prosecutor’s suggestion that ongoing cases might be thwarted by the action.
“Your statement also wrongly implies that your continued tenure in the office is necessary to ensure that cases now pending in the Southern District of New York are handled appropriately,” Barr wrote. “This is obviously false. I fully expect that the office will continue to handle all cases in the normal course and pursuant to the department’s applicable standards, policies, and guidance.”
He urged supervisors to take any allegations of “improper interference” to the Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz for review.
In his Friday night statement, the attorney general said that the president was appointing New Jersey’s chief federal prosecutor, Craig Carpenito, to serve in New York, pending Senate action on Clayton’s nomination. But Barr walked that back Saturday, saying that Berman’s top deputy, Audrey Strauss, would take charge as acting U.S. attorney until a replacement was seated – a move that appeared to mollify Berman’s initial concerns.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., one of Trump’s most vocal allies in Congress, said the president possessed the authority to remove Berman. He also expressed “confidence” in Strauss to run the Manhattan office “in a professional and ethical manner.”
Graham, whose committee would weigh the confirmation of a nominee to replace Berman, said that he knew Clayton and “believe him to be a fine man and accomplished lawyer.”
But the chairman also signaled that he would not move forward with the nomination without sign off from New York’s two senators.
Both Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., have called on Clayton to remove his name from consideration.
“I will not be complicit in helping President Trump and Attorney General Barr fire a U.S. attorney who is reportedly investigating corruption in this administration,” Gillibrand said.
Senate Minority Leader Schumer has called on Justice’s inspector general to review the action.
Trump, meanwhile, sidestepped on Saturday the firestorm raging over Berman and his own decision to fire the prosecutor.
The decision to remove Berman, the president said, was Barr’s to make.
“I’m not involved,” Trump told reporters before departing for a campaign rally in Oklahoma.
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After days of controversy over Trump’s choice to hold his first rally since the coronavirus lockdowns in Tulsa, Oklahoma, it was changed to July 20.
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U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey Berman speaks to reporters last year about two Florida men associated with President Trump’s lawyer Rudolf Giuliani and the Ukraine investigation.
Seth Wenig/AP
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Seth Wenig/AP
U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey Berman speaks to reporters last year about two Florida men associated with President Trump’s lawyer Rudolf Giuliani and the Ukraine investigation.
Seth Wenig/AP
The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York is in a fight with the Justice Department over his job.
Geoffrey Berman has overseen prosecutions of associates of President Trump, including Trump’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen. He also brought the grand jury indictment against associates of the president’s current personal attorney, Rudolf Giuliani.
Attorney General William Barr, in a statement released late Friday night, said that Berman is “stepping down” and the president is nominating Jay Clayton, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, to succeed Berman.
A short time later, Geoffrey Berman fired off his own announcement, denying Barr’s statement.
“I learned in a press release from the Attorney General tonight that I was ‘stepping down’ as United States Attorney,” Berman said. “I have not resigned, and have no intention of resigning, my position, to which I was appointed by the Judges of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. I will step down when a presidentially appointed nominee is confirmed by the Senate.”
“Until then, our investigations will move forward without delay or interruption.”
While Berman is pushing back against leaving his post, Attorney General Barr’s press release indicated that President Trump has already appointed an interim replacement for Berman. Barr said that effective July 3rd, Craig Carpenito, the current US Attorney for the District of New Jersey, would take over until Clayton is confirmed.
Barr thanked Berman for his service, adding, “With tenacity and savvy, Geoff has done an excellent job leading one of our nation’s most significant U.S. Attorney’s Offices, achieving many successes on consequential civil and criminal matters.”
Under Berman’s watch, his office brought the prosecution of multimillionaire Jeffrey Epstein on federal sex trafficking charges. Berman later charged two corrections officers who were supposed to guard Epstein with dereliction of their duties after Epstein’s apparent suicide in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center.
Berman’s team also aggressively investigated and prosecuted Trump’s former personal attorney and fixer, Michael Cohen. Cohen ultimately pleaded guilty to financial crimes, lying to Congress and campaign finance crimes.
Under oath, Cohen implicated Trump in payments made to two women ahead of the 2016 elections to keep them quiet about affairs they said they had with Trump.
Berman issued a grand jury indictment against Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, two men associated with Rudy Giuliani. The two have pleaded “not guilty” to setting up a shell company to hide the foreign sourcing of a $325,000 donation to a superPAC committed to President Trump’s reelection. The two also allegedly helped Giuliani in efforts to dig up dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter in Ukraine.
And Berman’s office has investigated the business dealings of Giuliani himself, but no charges have been brought against him.
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