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]]>Were it not for the coronavirus, Vishal Garg would be doing the same thing on Sept. 11, 2020, that he did on Sept. 11, 2001 — going to work in the cluster of skyscrapers that comprise the World Trade Center complex in lower Manhattan.
These days, Mr. Garg, 42, goes there as the founder and CEO of his own company, better.com, whereas he was an intern on the day hijackers flew two jets laden with people and fuel at top speed into the towers.
Nineteen years after the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history, people are again working in the clouds high above the Hudson River, and Mr. Garg and others say the focus must be on the now and next, not then.
“I think about all the lives lost and of course I’m very sad about that,” Mr. Garg said when asked about what he thinks about on the Sept. 11 anniversary. “But I also think about America being this amazing place. We’ve rebuilt and made it better. Today, this is a testament to America rather than a focus on the past.”
COVID-19 has emptied office buildings in New York and many other cities, throwing its own wrinkle on what is already a heavy day in Manhattan. For the roughly 25,000 people who normally come to work in the World Trade Center’s four towers, however, the current atmosphere has helped settle the clouds that formed over the nation’s financial canyons.
Taxpayers have shouldered much of the rebuilding load, but no small part of Ground Zero’s comeback has been fueled by the vision — and wallet — of Larry Silverstein, a New York City real estate legend who signed the biggest office space deal in the Big Apple’s history when he leased the World Trade Center for 99 years.
He did so in July 2001. Six weeks later, his $3.2 billion investment was literally 16 acres of smoking rubble.
Today, Mr. Silverstein, now 91, wakes up looking at an urban landscape he said he has poured $20 billion into making.
“It happened when I was 70 years of age and it’s only been about 20 years so, you know, no big deal,” Mr. Silverstein said. “I’ve got one tower done in 20 years and I still have one tower to go to finish it.”
Mr. Silverstein shared with The Washington Times a letter he is sending to all his employees on Sept. 11 in which he stresses the rejuvenation.
“We had to restore the commerce that has defined and animated the lower tip of Manhattan throughout the city’s history,” he writes. “Our goal was to create a place full of life and vibrancy that would reflect who we are as New Yorkers. Simply put, our vision was to create a better version of New York. Today, that vision is a reality.”
The tenant lineup of today’s World Trade Center reflects the downtown economy’s shift from the paper-piled, hand-dialed trading floors that once dominated it. Spotify is a huge presence, as is Mr. Garg’s online home mortgage and refinance company. There are law firms and magazine staffs. The 69th floor of 4 WTC has 34,000 square feet of walls painted by city street artists.
The old-fashioned financial world isn’t completely gone: Moody’s is a major tenant in One WTC, better known as the Freedom Tower.
While 2020 is an off-anniversary for the attacks, it marks the fifth for the Freedom Tower that stands where the Twin Towers did on Sept. 10, 2001. One WTC is the most expensive office building ever erected, costing $3.9 billion for the 1,776 feet designed to match the year when the Declaration of Independence was signed.
The 104 floors of One WTC tower over the 72 floors of 4 WTC (which cost $1.7 billion) and the 52 floors of 7 WTC (which cost $700 million). The three monuments to modern capitalism that Al Qaeda wanted to annihilate dwarf the monument to art and spirit below the trio, the Oculus, which cost even more than the skyscrapers: $4 billion.
After all, the Oculus, or “the Hub,” is simply a group of retail outlets atop a subway stop, and even glitzy coffee table books cast a gimlet eye at the money it took to construct the white, arched edifice.
“By the time the Hub opened, on March 3, 2016, many New Yorkers, subjected daily to the indignities of a crumbling subway system, were understandably vexed that the city’s 18th-busiest subway station — beneath a tourist trap of a high-end mall — could cost $4 billion,” Matt Kapp wrote in “A Century Downtown,” itself a gorgeously produced, $50 history of what amounts to a few city blocks.
To Mr. Garg, Mr. Silverstein and others, however, the Oculus is one more indication of how something vibrant and impressive has replaced a spot so wounded and depressing.
“That thing is pretty cool, it is a deep, moving thing to look at,” said Benjamin Capshaw, a Louisiana investment banker who took his family to look at the modern WTC several months ago because, in the summer of 2001, he worked in the soon-to-be destroyed one.
“My daughter saw it and said, ‘Why did they dig out such a big hole,’ and I said, ‘They didn’t, sweetheart, that was already there,” Mr. Capshaw said.
As a trainee with then Morgan Stanley/Dean Witter, Mr. Capshaw spent the summer of 2001 shuttling between the 66th and 72nd floors of the southern tower, the second to be hit on 9/11, just a couple of weeks after Mr. Capshaw left the building and while he was still trying to get his paperwork mailed out of it.
“I remember watching the boat patterns out in the Hudson River, and that if you had a glass of water, sometimes it would move and bubble because the buildings would move,” he said.
The boat patterns are more visible than ever now. The architect of the Twin Towers the terrorists targeted, Minoru Yamasaki, had a fear of heights, so the old windows were narrow strips.
“The windows on each of the new towers are huge — at One WTC they are 5 feet wide by 13.5 feet high,” said Dara McQuillen, whose office with Silverstein Properties at 7 WTC has “floor to ceiling glass so the views are unbelievable. It’s actually hard to concentrate sometimes because there is so much to see outside.”
The memory of what could be seen outside there 19 years ago gave Mr. Garg pause when Mr. Silverstein tried to lure Better.com out of its SoHo headquarters.
But he found the capitalist pulse beating as strongly as it had when he was on the 78th floor of 1 WTC.
“I was walking to work on John Street when I heard the first plane hit above me,” Mr. Garg said. “So I wasn’t sure what I was going to think, and I wasn’t sure what my team was going to think about working there. But when I stepped inside it was awesome; the ju-ju of Salomon Brothers was still there, it was column-free with high ceilings, but everything works. I’m kind of superstitious, but the space has the same vibe and I loved 7 World Trade Center for that reason.”
A similar vibe prompted Mr. Silverstein to make downtown his home now as well as his office after a lifetime in Midtown.
“My God, this is all vastly superior to what there was, there ain’t no comparison,” he said. “Downtown makes me feel young again.”
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]]>The post Manhattan DA Vance asks Supreme Court to rush Trump tax return ruling to lower courts, warns of statute of limitations appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>U.S. President Donald Trump attends a news conference in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, July 14, 2020.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday to immediately send to lower federal courts its recent ruling that President Donald Trump is not immune from having his tax returns subpoenaed, warning a delay could thwart the filing of possible criminal charges.
Vance’s action came hours after Trump’s lawyer formally told a federal judge that Trump will fight to keep the DA from obtaining the president’s tax returns, and argued in a new court filing that as part of that battle Trump is entitled to know why Vance’s prosecutors want the records.
The Supreme Court ruled last week 7-2 that Trump does not have absolute immunity as president from being investigated by a state prosecutor while in office, and from being subject to a subpoena like the one for his tax records issued by a Manhattan grand jury to his accounting firm. Vance’s prosecutors had sought the subpoena as part of an ongoing criminal investigation they are conducting.
The Supreme Court opinion left the door open for Trump to continue challenging the subpoena to the Mazars USA firm on other grounds.
Normally, the Supreme Court waits for a minimum of 25 days before its opinions take effect.
But Vance, in his request, wants that to happen much sooner “to ensure that the state grand jury has access to all of the evidence to which it is entitled in a timely fashion – thereby minimizing any risk that criminal conduct will go unpunished.”
He warned that if there is a lag in transmitting the ruling, and a related delay in a lower court adjudicating Trump’s expected new challenge to the subpoena, “Given the age of many of the transactions at issue in the grand jury’s investigation, issues could arise in the near future concerning the applicable statutes of limitations.” Those statutes bar the filing of charges related to certain kinds of crimes.
And Vance said if there is too long a delay Trump might get “the absolutely immunity that this court rejected.”
Trump lawyer William Consovoy, in a joint update with Vance’s office to Judge Victor Marrero, the Manhattan federal court judge overseeing the subpoena case, laid out several possible grounds for the president to continue his effort to block or reduce the scope of the subpoeana for the tax returns. The filing came on the deadline this year for Americans to file their federal income tax returns.
Consovoy said the potential arguments against the subpoena include claiming that it was not “properly tailored,” that it was “motivated by a desire to harass or is conducted in bad faith,” is designed to retaliate against Trump, and that compliance with the demand would “impede his constitutional duties.”
“The President intends to raise some or all of these arguments in his forthcoming Second Amended Complaint,” Consovoy wrote.
The attorney said that in developing a “factual record” for ruling on the claims, the judge and Trump are entitled to know why Vance “wants the information, why and how much the State needs the information.”
Vance is understood to be investigating, at the very least, whether the Trump Organization improperly accounted for a $130,000 hush money payment made by Trump’s then-lawyer Michael Cohen in 2016 to a woman who claimed to have had a sexual encounter with Trump.
Trump has denied the claim by the woman, porn star Stormy Daniels. But he and his company reimbursed Cohen for the payment to her.
Vance has not explicitly said what he is investigating, or that the probe is limited to the hush money payment.
His investigation is seen as a pointed threat to Trump, who has, unlike every other president since the mid-1970s, refused to release his income tax returns.
Consovoy wrote in the filing that, “The President should not be required … to litigate the subpoena’s breadth or whether it was issued in bad faith without understanding the nature and scope of the investigation and why the District Attorney needs all of the documents demanded.”
Vance’s office, in an argument in the same filing, urged Marrero to quickly resolve the dispute, as he previously did in ruling that Mazars had to comply with the subpoena despite Trump’s objections.
Vance’s lawyer, Carey Dunne, cited the “continuing concerns about the potential loss of critical evidence and expiration of statutes of limitations” if the subpoena is further delayed.
Dunne also said the judge “has already found that there was no demonstrated bad faith, harassment, or any other unusual circumstances” in the subpoena request.
And Dunne wrote said that “except in extreme cases, the law does not permit the recipient of a grand jury subpoena to conduct discovery into the bona fides or motivations behind such a subpoena, and nothing in the Supreme Court’s decision suggests that this President should be able to do so here.”
Jay Sekulow, another lawyer for Trump, declined to comment to CNBC, saying the court filing spoke for itself.
— Additional reporting by CNBC’s Tucker Higgins
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]]>The post Trump’s pick for Manhattan U.S. attorney refuses to say he would recuse from probes of president’s associates appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>President Trump’s nominee to take over the Manhattan federal prosecutors office after the abrupt dismissal of U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman refused on Thursday to say whether he would recuse himself from pending investigations involving Trump’s interests and associates if confirmed for the post.
Appearing before a House Financial Services subcommittee, Securities and Exchange Committee Chairman Jay Clayton sought to deflect Democrats’ questions about his selection for the job and the circumstances under which Berman was removed over the weekend, characterizing the Senate confirmation process as “way down the road.” But when pressed by Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.) to “commit, right here, to recusing yourself” from matters in which the president has a personal stake, Clayton demurred.
“What I will commit to do, which is what I commit to in my current job, is to approach the job with independence and to follow all ethical rules,” he responded.
Attorney General William P. Barr announced Clayton’s nomination in a news release issued late Friday night. Barr indicated at the time that Berman intended to step down early next month and that the U.S. attorney in neighboring New Jersey would run the Manhattan office on an interim basis. In a remarkable statement of his own issued hours later, Berman said he had no intention of resigning — and that he was determined to ensure “important cases continue unimpeded.”
The highly unusual standoff ended late Saturday, after Barr informed Berman that Trump had decided to fire him. The attorney general then named Berman’s deputy, Audrey Strauss, as the office’s acting head.
The New York U.S. Attorney’s Office has pursued a number of investigations that have struck close to Trump’s inner circle, including his former and current personal attorneys, as well as his political campaign.
An ongoing probe into Rudolph W. Giuliani, Trump’s current lawyer, has been particularly aggravating to the president.
Earlier in Thursday’s hearing, which was supposed to focus on the state of the economy during the coronavirus pandemic, Clayton sought to assure lawmakers that he remains devoted to his present job at the SEC, which he has held since 2017.
“I recognize the nomination process is multifaceted and uncertain, and it is clear the process does not require my current attention,” he said in prepared remarks. “In short, I am fully committed to and focused on my role at the SEC.”
Clayton’s nomination to take over the job may already be in trouble. Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, signaled he would honor the so-called “blue slip” veto system granting home-state senators a say in whose nomination proceeds. Several Democrats, including those the Democratic senators from New York, have called on Clayton to withdraw his nomination.
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]]>WASHINGTON (AP) — An unusual standoff between Attorney General William P. Barr and Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor ended Saturday when the prosecutor agreed to leave his job with an assurance that investigations by the prosecutor’s office into the president’s allies would not be disturbed.
U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman announced in an early evening statement that he would leave his post, ending increasingly nasty exchanges between Barr and Berman. President Donald Trump, meanwhile, had distanced himself from the dispute, telling reporters the decision “was all up to the attorney general.”
The whirlwind chain of events began Friday night, when Barr announced that Berman, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, had resigned. Hours later, the prosecutor issued a statement denying that he had resigned and saying that his office’s “investigations would move forward without delay or interruption.”
On Saturday morning, he showed up to work, telling reporters, “I’m just here to do my job.”
The administration’s push to cast aside Berman set up an extraordinary political and constitutional clash between the Justice Department and one of the nation’s top districts, which has tried major mob and terrorism cases over the years and is investigating Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. It also deepened tensions between the department and congressional Democrats, who have accused Barr of politicizing the agency and acting more like Trump’s personal lawyer than the country’s chief law enforcement officer.
Only days ago, allegations surfaced from former Trump national security adviser John Bolton that the president sought to interfere in an investigation by Berman’s office into the state-owned Turkish bank in an effort to cut deals with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
In a letter made public by the Justice Department on Saturday, Barr said he expected to continue speaking with Berman about other possible positions within the department and was surprised by the statement he released.
“Unfortunately, with your statement of last night, you have chosen public spectacle over public service,” Barr wrote, adding that the idea that Berman had to continue on the job to safeguard investigations was “false.”
“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,” he wrote. “This is obviously false.”
Although Barr said Trump had removed Berman, the president told reporters: “That’s all up to the attorney general. Attorney General Barr is working on that. That’s his department, not my department.” Trump added: “I wasn’t involved.”
Barr offered no explanation for his action. The White House announced that Trump was nominating Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton, a well-connected Wall Street lawyer with virtually no experience as a federal prosecutor, for the job.
Berman initially planned to remain in his job until a replacement was confirmed, but he changed his mind late Saturday after Barr said he would allow Berman’s second in command, Deputy U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss, to become acting U.S. attorney.
Berman said that led him to announce he would be leaving, “effective immediately.”
People familiar with the matter in the Southern District could point to no clear reason for Berman’s removal, though they noted his job had always seemed in jeopardy and Berman was never given the sense that it was secure.
Berman’s office also took actions on some important cases without first informing Washington. But the various investigations are ongoing and no charges seem imminent, said the people familiar with the matter, who weren’t authorized to publicly discuss the matter and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.cl
A senior department official said Clayton was planning to leave the administration, wanted to move back to New York and expressed interest in the Southern District position, and Barr thought he would be a good fit. The official was not authorized to publicly discuss internal department matters and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said he was unlikely to proceed with Clayton’s nomination unless New York’s senators, Democrats Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, gave their consent to the pick. Schumer said the bid to oust Berman “reeks of potential corruption of the legal process,” and Gillibrand said she would “not be complicit” in helping fire a prosecutor investigating corruption. Both lawmakers called for Clayton to withdraw from consideration.
The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., said his committee was inviting Berman to testify this coming week. Schumer called for the department’s inspector general and Office of Professional Responsibility to investigate.
Berman’s statement Friday night said he would stay on the job until a nominee was confirmed by the Senate. He challenged Barr’s power to remove, given that Berman was appointed by federal judges, not by the president, and the White House never formally nominated him. Under federal law, a U.S. attorney who is appointed by district court judges can serve “until the vacancy is filled.”
But the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel argued in a 1979 opinion that the “power to remove a court-appointed U.S. attorney rests with the president.” It says, “The president is responsible for the conduct of a U.S. Attorney’s office and therefore must have the power to remove one he believes is an unsuitable incumbent, regardless of who appointed him.”
Federal prosecutors in New York have overseen numerous prosecutions and investigations with ties to Trump in recent years. That includes an ongoing investigation into Giuliani’s business dealings, including whether he failed to register as a foreign agent, according to people familiar with the matter. They were not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The office has also prosecuted a number of Trump associates, including Trump’s former personal lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen, who served a prison sentence for lying to Congress and campaign finance crimes. Cohen was recently released from a federal prison to continue serving his sentence on home confinement over coronavirus concerns.
Berman has overseen the prosecution of two Florida businessmen, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, who were associates of Giuliani and tied to the Ukraine impeachment investigation. The men were charged in October with federal campaign finance violations, including hiding the origin of a $325,000 donation to a group supporting Trump’s reelection.
A Republican who contributed to the president’s election campaign, Berman worked for the same law firm as Giuliani and was tapped as U.S. attorney by the Trump administration. In that role, he won over some skeptics after he went after Trump allies.
Under Berman’s tenure, his office also brought charges against Michael Avenatti, the combative lawyer who gained fame by representing porn actress Stormy Daniels in lawsuits involving Trump. Avenatti was convicted in February of trying to extort Nike after prosecutors said he threatened to use his media access to hurt Nike’s reputation and stock price unless the sportswear giant paid him up to $25 million.
___
Neumeister reported from New York. Associated Press writers Colleen Long, Eric Tucker, Zeke Miller and Marcy Gordon in Washington and Tom Hays and Kevin Hagen in New York contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2020 The Washington Times, LLC.
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]]>The post ‘I have not resigned’: Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman fires back at Barr, who says he’s leaving appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>Geoffrey Berman, the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, plans to step down and President Donald Trump will nominate the current chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission to succeed him, Attorney General William Barr announced Friday evening.
But Berman said he learned of the plan in a Justice Department press release and shot back that he has no intention of stepping down.
“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,” he said in a statement late Friday night.
“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. I cherish every day that I work with the men and women of this Office to pursue justice without fear or favor — and intend to ensure that this Office’s important cases continue unimpeded.”
Word of Barr’s announcement caught senior officials in the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office off guard. His office prosecuted former Trump confidante Michael Cohen, though he was recused from involvement in the case. And he was overseeing the investigation of Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani’s business activities.
Barr said the president will nominate Jay Clayton to succeed Berman.
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“For the past three years, Jay has been an extraordinarily successful SEC Chairman, overseeing efforts to modernize regulation of the capital markets, protect Main Street investors, enhance American competitiveness, and address challenges ranging from cybersecurity issues to the COVID-19 pandemic.”
He said Berman “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.”
Until Clayton can be nominated and confirmed, Barr said, Craig Carpenito, the United States Attorney in New Jersey, will serve as acting US attorney in New York.
Berman’s statement, however, said he has no intention of leaving his position vacant.
Berman has also overseen the prosecution of two Florida businessmen, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, former associates of Giuliani who were tied to the Ukraine impeachment investigation. Berman’s office filed charges last fall, accusing them of violating federal campaign finance laws.
A senior administration official said Barr made the decision because Clayton planned to leave the SEC position and return to New York and expressed interest in the U.S. attorney’s position. The official said Berman was offered another position in the Justice Department but declined.
“It’s no reflection on Berman, but Barr regarded Clayton highly and thought he would be a good fit,” the official said. The official pointed out that the U.S. attorney’s position is a political appointment.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler tweeted, “America is right to expect the worst of Bill Barr, who has repeatedly interfered in criminal investigations on Trump’s behalf.”
“We have a hearing on this topic on Wednesday,” said Nadler, D-N.Y., who represents parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn. “We welcome Mr. Berman’s testimony and will invite him to testify.”
Preet Bharara, who preceded Berman in the office was fired in the early days of the Trump administration tweeted, “Doesn’t sound like ‘stepping down.'”
He added: “Why does a president get rid of his own hand-picked US Attorney in SDNY on a Friday night, less than 5 months before the election?”
New York’s senior U.S. senator, Democrat Charles Schumer, said the move “reeks of potential corruption of the legal process. What is angering President Trump? A previous action by this U.S. attorney or one that is ongoing?”
Pete Williams is an NBC News correspondent who covers the Justice Department and the Supreme Court, based in Washington.
Tom Winter is a New York-based correspondent covering crime, courts, terrorism and financial fraud on the East Coast for the NBC News Investigative Unit.
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]]>The post U.S. Attorney in Manhattan refuses to step down after Barr announces his resignation appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>Attorney General William P. Barr late Friday stunned the legal world by abruptly announcing that Geoffrey Berman, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, which includes Manhattan, is “stepping down.”
But Mr. Berman quickly fired back that he has no intention of resigning and now Congress wants to investigate the matter.
The drama unfolded just before midnight Friday. First, Mr. Barr announced that Mr. Berman would leave the position he’s held for two and a half years and an office running multiple investigations of President Trump’s allies.
“I thank Geoffrey Berman, who is stepping down after two-and-a-half years of service as United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York,” Mr. Barr said in a statement around 10:00 pm. “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.”
No explanation was offered for the move.
Mr. Barr said Craig Carpentino, the U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, would take over Mr. Berman’s office on an interim basis. The move is a departure from Justice Department procedures, which usually appoints a prosecutor within the same office to take over as an acting U.S. attorney.
Mr. Trump then announced his intent to nominate Jay Clayton, the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission to succeed Mr. Berman, pending a Senate confirmation.
The sudden job shuffling soon descended into chaos as just before midnight, Mr. Berman announced that he would not resign, contradicting Mr. Barr’s earlier announcement.
“I learned in a press release from the Attorney General tonight that I was ‘stepping down’ as United States Attorney,” Mr. Berman said in a statement posted to his office’s Twitter account.
“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,” Mr. Berman’s statement continued.
“I will step down when a presidentially appointed nominee is confirmed by the Senate,” he continued.
Mr. Berman also promised that his investigations — some of which involve Mr. Trump’s allies — will “move forward without delay or interruption.”
Then Congress weighed in with House Judiciary Committee Chairman Nadler announcing at midnight he wants Mr. Berman to testify before his panel.
“America is right to expect the worst of Bill Barr, who has repeatedly interfered in criminal investigations on Trump’s behalf,” Mr. Nadler said. “We have a hearing on this topic on Wednesday. We welcome Mr. Berman’s testimony and will invite him to testify.”
This week two Justice Department officials and a former official from President George W. Bush’s administration will testify on allegations Mr. Barr has interfered in investigations.
All the drama sets up a power struggle between the Justice Department and the Southern District of New York, arguably the country’s most prominent and powerful U.S. Attorney’s office.
Federal prosecutors in Mr. Berman’s office are investigating the business dealings of Mr. Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, including whether he failed to register as a foreign agent, according to media reports.
The office prosecuted Mr. Trump’s former fixer and now foe Michael Cohen, who served a brief prison sentence for lying to Congress and violating campaign finance laws.
Mr. Berman also oversaw the prosecution of two Giuliani associates, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, who were charged in October with campaign finance violations, including funneling foreign money into U.S. elections.
Mr. Berman’s office is also probing the Turkish financial institution Halkbank for allegedly violating U.S. trade sanctions against Iran in order to free a U.S. pastor imprisoned in Turkey.
In his upcoming tell-all book, former national security advisor John Bolton claims Mr. Trump told Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan he would block the probe in exchange for releasing the American pastor.
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