Geoffrey Berman, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York—the most prestigious federal prosecutor in the nation other than the U.S. Attorney General—has announced that he refuses to step aside until the Senate confirms his replacement.
CNN reported:
Washington (CNN)Geoffrey Berman, the powerful US attorney for the Southern District of New York who has investigated a number of associates with ties to President Donald Trump, said he will not leave his post shortly after the Department of Justice announced late Friday night he was stepping down.
Berman issued a statement saying that he learned of his exit from a press release.
“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,” Berman said in an extraordinary statement. “Until then, our investigations will move forward without delay or interruption.”
Berman’s rebuttal came about an hour after the Department of Justice announced Trump intends to nominate Jay Clayton, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, who has never been a prosecutor.
A Justice Department official told CNN that Berman was offered other positions at Justice, including the head of the civil division, where assistant Attorney General Jody Hunt abruptly announced his departure this week. Berman declined. Barr asked Berman to resign in an in-person meeting in New York on Friday, the source said.
A second source with knowledge of the matter said Berman was asked to resign and refused.
Berman’s unexpected exit is likely to draw scrutiny inside the US attorney’s office and among career prosecutors. He had been the US attorney for Manhattan since 2018, and under his leadership, his office prosecuted Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen, is investigating top Trump confidante Rudy Giuliani and indicted the former New York mayor’s associates Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman.
Tensions between the New York and Washington offices have grown with Berman and Barr butting heads over the handling of some cases, including the indictment of Turkish bank Halkbank.
Last fall, Justice Department officials discussed replacing Berman with Ed O’Callaghan, a senior official, but then prosecutors indicted the Giuliani associates, a move that appeared to extend Berman’s tenure.
The timing of the move, announced shortly before 10 p.m. ET, immediately raised questions about the circumstances regarding Berman’s departure.
Preet Bharara, a CNN senior legal analyst who was fired by Trump as US attorney for the Southern District shortly after Trump took office in 2017, told CNN’s Don Lemon that the late-night announcement was a “highly irregular thing to do … when there are all sorts of investigations swirling around.”
If confirmed, Clayton would be the first person to hold the position who had no experience as a prosecutor.
Perhaps this is Barr’s or a Trump’s attempt to shut down ongoing prosecutions.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
What next?
Friday evening is known in mass media and the news profession as “the bad news chasm.” When authorities, incumbents, powerful rich people, corporations, stars, etc., have bad news or sleazy maneuvers to announce Friday evening is best time to bury it b/c the Saturday news audience is the smallest in the 7-day news cycle(folks sleep late, go to brunch, do laundry and shopping, go to the beach, visit friends and family, mow the lawn, etc.). (Inept Nixon was a day late and a dollar short with his famous “Saturday Night Massacre”). The Tulsa Rally helps distract from this latest gaffes, setbacks, and maneuvers while also throwing red meat to his base to dismiss masks and act tough against the wimpy Dems. B/c it’s a pres. election yr, the stakes are very high and Trump will accelerate his propaganda and maneuvers, and also become more unstable and ugly.
Ira,
All the polls show Trump losing badly. See “Realclearpolitics.com).
The more he sees defeat ahead, the more unhinged he becomes. He will lash out, create chaos, try to block all mail-in voting, warm that the Dems have rigged the election. Whine.
This is a dangerous time.
It is time for the Republicans to develop some spine before any vestiges of a democratic system disappear.
Don’t hold your breath. These are very, very perilous times.
Bob is right, don’t hold your breath. MN GOP in State Senate just blocked any police reform bill from passing after an all-night negotiation with the Dem State Assembly broke down at 6am. Adjourned without any action after 3 wks of mass protests in MN and around the nation.
The U.S. has become a corrupt banana republic without the banana planatations. This is chilling. It goes to the very heart of democracy.
As everyone learns in Poli Sci 101, a state is by definition an entity with a monopoly on violence. In most modern nation states, there are legal limits on the use of state violence.
But there are some people who put the world together in the following way: Nature is red in tooth and claw. The sum of the law is, “Seize sufficient power that you can do what you will.” Such people imagine themselves to be holders of “The Secret”–this insane, psychopathic idea. And they imagine others who think otherwise to be naive, to be fools who don’t understand that everything except raw power is just pretty words. See this note:
Such people hear folks like those who comment on this blog talk about “democracy” and chuckle.
Barr is such a man, this bizarre phenomenon, a lawyer who ultimately rejects altogether the rule of law, unless, of course, by “law” you mean completely unchecked exercise of the strongman’s will. Barr’s theory of presidential powers: “L’etat c’est moi.”
Rule by strongman. Completely unchecked power. As in the criminal mob or gang or cartel. As in Stalin’s Soviet Union. As in Hitler’s Germany. As in North Korea. As in Saudi Arabia. As on the Southern Plantation. As in medieval Europe. As in a Greater Chimpanzee troop. As in the country Trump and Barr and their ilk are trying to create.
How such people see the world:
Yes, it gets curiouser and curiouser. According to a story released today, the Idiot will have $500 billion of loans coming due soon. How much of that is in the $500 billion PPP money (as the Church Lady would say, How convenient!) that Munchkin is hiding from public oversight?
I’d take rising to the level of a Banana Republic right now. Even the store.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/06/donald-trump-loans-deutsche-bank/
I read today, not released today.
Thanks for offering some perspective, Bob. It’s an absolutely gorgeous day outside but I’m just…’astonished’ is the best word. I didn’t find that word first this morning but, yeah, that’s it. Astonished. I want to look away but I can’t. I also should not look away.
It’s like watching a car crash day after day and I’m viewing it from a distance PLUS I’m in the car with my loved ones beside me at the same time. And it is a crash that can be avoided!
You know how other languages have words that describe things that English just fails at?
Maybe some other language has a word for when an entire NATION goes over the edge….a country crashing?
Of, I’m just not grasping a word that I do know?
So is the whole Tulsa business just to distract while they do this kind of thing?
Whenever the President tweets or does anything that gets our attention, someone needs to look behind the headlines for what is really happening! Everything Trump does in public is to hide what he or his cronies are doing behind the scenes. Look at the Departments! They are “raping” America from within.
Bill, that is true. Trump distracts the public with his tweets. What he does not tweet about is his systematic pillage of government agencies and the expulsion of the top career public servants, whose jobs are filled by Trump sycophants.
Could this be the moment when the house of cards begins to tumble? Will there be more people like Bolton, a reactionary in his own right, who begin to see the futility of trying to run the country with an eye on personal advantage?
Recent Supreme Court decisions suggest that the Chief Justice has decided to play a role in the politics of the nation. Exactly what role is interesting, and the distance the Chief Justice has from the voting public makes guessing the best game. One idea is that Roberts prefers Bush-like conservatives to Trump-like conservatives and will undermine Trump if he can. Another is that he is trying to keep hot-button issues live for the fall election. I am sure there are more guesses.
Nixon’s firing of those trying to turn up the truth led to his lack of support and ultimate departure. Will this be Trump’s moment?
I predict a constitutional crisis in November. In the midst of a continued pandemic, thousands of voters will show up I their 35,000 voter districts to vote and will be standing in line when the polls close. This will lead to lawsuits and the Supreme Court will once again choose our president.
Trump administration in standoff with Manhattan U.S. attorney who investigated the president’s associates
June 18, 2020
…Unlike many other U.S. attorneys, Berman is almost uniquely positioned to resist efforts to oust him, at least for a while. U.S. attorneys are typically nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate, but in Berman’s case he was appointed to the job by the federal court in his district, and there is some legal precedent indicating that only the court, not the Justice Department, can remove him until a replacement is confirmed by the Senate.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said he would seek to have Berman testify at a previously scheduled hearing next week to examine Barr’s leadership of the agency.
“America is right to expect the worst of Bill Barr, who has repeatedly interfered in criminal investigations on Trump’s behalf,” Nadler tweeted. “We have a hearing on this topic on Wednesday. We welcome Mr. Berman’s testimony and will invite him to testify.”
A spokesman for Berman declined to comment.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/trump-administration-replaces-manhattan-us-attorney/2020/06/19/acae9348-b298-11ea-8758-bfd1d045525a_story.html
Barr Abruptly Seeks to Fire U.S. Attorney Who Investigated Trump Associates
But the United States attorney in Manhattan, Geoffrey Berman, who had been leading the inquiry into Rudolph Giuliani, is refusing to leave his position.
…Mr. Barr’s attempt to remove Mr. Berman came two days after excerpts released from Mr. Bolton’s upcoming book described what Mr. Bolton said was Mr. Trump’s willingness to intervene in criminal investigations, including one in Mr. Berman’s office.
Mr. Bolton wrote in the book that Mr. Trump in 2018 had promised the Turkish president, Mr. Erdogan, that he would interfere in an ongoing investigation against a Turkish company accused of violating Iranian sanctions.
“Trump then told Erdogan he would take care of things, explaining that the Southern District prosecutors were not his people, but were Obama people, a problem that would be fixed when they were replaced by his people,” Mr. Bolton wrote, according to an excerpt published this week in The Washington Post.
At the time, Mr. Berman was the U.S. attorney overseeing the case. The company, Halkbank, a state-owned bank in Turkey, was indicted in the Southern District last year.
Mr. Berman was also known for his office’s decision last year to bring sex-trafficking charges against Jeffrey Epstein, who had avoided a similar prosecution in Florida in 2008…
Katie “Barr” the door.
As someone above said, before any vestige of democracy disappears.
More like a dictatorship every day
AND
those people line up to hear him speak?
Unbelievable.
Maybe they will all get the virus
and that
will convince them.
“BUT, I wonder if even that would
deter them. Brain washed.
The logical extension of Barr’s thinking would be a national system of identity cards that signify political affiliations in order to decide who gets access to particular governmental services or is subject to legal persecution. And, of course, there would be mandated purity tests to be taken at regular intervals.
I LOVE GOOD NEWS!! “Stunningly uninformed leader”…the more dirt that hits the fan the better.
………………………….
The Washington Post
Alert
News Alert
Jun 20, 10:41 AM
U.S. judge declines to block release of book by former national security adviser John Bolton
The Justice Department had asked the court to stop the distribution of Bolton’s memoir after the Trump administration said it contained classified information. “The Room Where It Happened” is set to be released June 23 and explores Bolton’s time as the president’s top national security official. Bolton contends the order is aimed at censoring his portrait of Trump as a “stunningly uninformed” leader.
“discussion about replacing Berman with Ed O’Callaghan”- Ed’s alma maters- Immaculate Heart of Mary parish grammar school and Xavier High School (New York)-
Ed received a St.Thomas More award in 2017.
Barr’s recommendation for acting until Clayton’s confirmation hearing- Craig Carpenito-
Craig’s alma mater -Seton Hall
If Barr hadn’t said he wanted to introduce religion at every opportunity…
Reportedly, Carpenito is a long term associate of Chris Christie and acted for Christie in a case related to the Ft. Lee bridge scandal.
Barr wanted Jay Clayton, a friend of Trump’s, to take the NY U.S. attorney’s job even though he had no experience being a prosecutor. Trump said, “not involved’.
This corruption is taking place in public view. Berman was successful at finding dirt so Trump, with Barr’s help, determined that it was time for him to leave. This is a mockery of the Department of Justice when those who are successfully doing their jobs are removed.
…………………..
Trump Fires U.S. Attorney in New York Who Investigated His Inner Circle
The president’s move heightened criticism that he was purging his administration of officials whose independence could be a threat to his re-election.
Mr. Trump’s dismissal of the prosecutor, Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States attorney in Manhattan, whose office has pursued one case after another that have rankled Mr. Trump, led to political blowback and an unexpected result: By the end of the day, Mr. Berman’s handpicked deputy, not the administration’s favored replacement, was chosen to succeed him for now.
In a striking move late Friday night, Mr. Berman, who has been in office since 2018, had declined to leave his post after Attorney General William P. Barr announced that he would be replaced by Jay Clayton, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Mr. Clayton is friendly with Mr. Trump and had golfed with the president at his club in Bedminster, N.J., as recently as last weekend, according to two people familiar with the matter.
But on Saturday, facing a standoff with Mr. Berman, Mr. Barr shifted course, saying he would replace Mr. Berman temporarily with the prosecutor’s own chief deputy, Audrey Strauss. The decision appeared to mollify Mr. Berman, who issued a statement saying he would step down in light of the reversal.
In the statement, Mr. Berman said that under Ms. Strauss, the Southern District of New York, as the prosecutors’ office in Manhattan is formally known, “will continue to safeguard” its “enduring tradition of integrity and independence.”…
“Because you have declared that you have no intention of resigning, I have asked the president to remove you as of today, and he has done so,” the letter read.
Speaking briefly to reporters outside the White House before heading to a campaign rally in Tulsa, Okla., Mr. Trump tried to distance himself from the firing. He insisted he was “not involved” in the decision to remove Mr. Berman despite what Mr. Barr said in his letter…
I hope he knows what he is doing. As soon as he is out, Barr can change his mind about who will be the acting head, especially since trump still denies involvement in his removal. Trump doesn’t want a permanent head, and he has six months to have whoever he wants installed. That’s all he needs to do real damage and protect himself.
Craig Carpenito is Barr’s selection for acting. He’s in the Chris Christie camp.
My comment was made after Barr agreed to follow normal procedures and install Audrey Stauss, the normal successor by precedence. I worry that Barr will find some reason to renege once Berman is out of the picture.
I’m certain he will.
We Can’t Risk Anything With This Election
By Michael Moore, Michael Moore’s Facebook Page
21 June 20
Michael Moore below sounds the alarm that Trump’s supporters remain uniquely dedicated, passionate and committed. This piece is reminiscent of his ominous 2016 prediction that Trump could in fact win at that stage too.
However the New York Times is reporting that Trump’s rally in Tulsa actually was a disappointment in terms of turnout. Did Coronavirus fears factor in, or is reality finally catching up with the Trump reality show. It’s hard to say but he was apparently furious. — MA/RSN ”
They started lining up on Tues in Tulsa for Trump’s rally today. 100,000 are expected! Trump has lost none of his base and they are more rabid than ever. Sleeping on the sidewalk for five nights just to get in to see Trump? THAT is commitment. Do not take Trump for granted. Don’t think he can’t win. Don’t get all cocky telling everyone there’s no way he’s winning the White House because, frankly, you sound a lot like yourself four years ago when you told everyone there’s no way this country is going to put a clown in the Oval Office. If you are once again not taking my warnings seriously, then I have a question I want you to answer, and I ask you to answer me honestly:
“How many people would line up for five days just to hear Joe Biden talk?”
12?
5?
None?
The candidate who inspires the most people in the swing states to excitedly get to the polls — and ensure that each of them bring 10-20 of their friends & family w/ them on Election Day — all of them highly-motivated, fired-up, & “on a mission from God” — THAT’S who wins the White House. Don’t think we don’t have a problem here. Don’t get all smug laughing at these Bubbas in Tulsa today & snickering over how many of them are going to come down with Covid-19. They live, eat and breathe Trump — and none of us do that with Joe Biden. We’re counting on Hatred of Trump – not love of Biden – to win the day. Is that how you really think — hate beats love? Like, the more we ply our neighbor’s hatred of Trump, that’s the ticket to win? Because deep down we know there’s no massive, intense love of Joe Biden, no one is all dreamy and jazzy when they think about Joe Biden’s jobs plan, Joe Biden’s health care plan, child care plan, criminal justice plan, income inequality plan — “Mike! Stop! We get it.” Trump’s ppl will pack the polling sites. Our people will, well…well…they’ll be there!
That’s not enough. We’d better figure this out. Biden better get out of the basement. We need to know he’s ok. We need to know what Plan B is. Don’t be afraid to search your own mind about what you’re afraid to ask or say. We can’t risk ANYTHING with this election. Biden has to rock everyone’s world to win. I’m just the messenger. I’ll do my part.
“Biden has to rock everyone’s world to win.”
Why is it that we have to be able to elect our candidate of choice to sainthood? Don’t we really know that governing is hard work and that change is likely to be incremental no matter what laws we pass? Total agreement just isn’t in the cards nor is it realistic. Biden has a reputation of listening and compromise. That means that no one who wants change or who has policy ideas that they think have merit can get complacent in the event of a Biden win. It is going to take work to move the country in a progressive direction, and it is going to take unending vigilance to hang on to any movement in that direction. The American dream is just that, a dream. We will have to fight for the chance to make it a reality.
The last report I read was that the crowd was largely tepid, enthusiasm was muted, and Trump was boring. Same lines, same whines. Just can’t people up any more with BUILD THE WALL AND WHO’S GOING TO PAY FOR IT! LOCK HER UP! DRAIN THE SWAMP!
The Guardian posted a good and accurate synopsis of the event.
I don’t think Michael Moore understands why people didn’t show up to vote for the democrat in 2016.
It wasn’t because “she who cannot be named” wasn’t out there or “didn’t campaign in Michigan”.
It was because “she who cannot be named” was absolutely demonized and mischaracterized as a corrupt and dishonest and racist person. It wasn’t that people weren’t excited enough to vote for her. It was that both mainstream media (which was never “liberal”) and social media had successfully convinced the public that the candidate was absolutely, positively, just as corrupt and just as racist as Trump (or perhaps even more corrupt and racist), so whether or not Trump or the democrat won was of absolutely no importance.
No wonder people didn’t show up to vote.
The right wing propaganda arm is chomping at the bit for Biden to make any tiny misstep that can be exaggerated — with help from the “liberal” mainstream media trying to prove that they aren’t biased — in order to convince voters that it makes absolutely no difference whether Biden or Trump wins because both are equally corrupt.
Right now people are very motivated to defeat Trump because Biden has done anything to allow them to change the narrative to “look how evil and corrupt Biden is, too, he’s no better than Trump”.
When you start reading THAT meme as the new narrative, Biden will be in danger of losing. Honestly, the reason that hasn’t happened so far is because Biden has been in his basement!
Biden could stay in his basement until election day and he would win the election if the right wing propaganda arm was unable to come up with new ammunition they could hand-feed to the NYT reporters so that the NYT blasted endless front page headlines about Biden’s “corruption” and “lies” and “democrats are so worried about how corrupt and dishonest Biden looks”. THAT will insure that lots of people don’t show up to vote for Biden.
Biden staying in the basement won’t prevent the right wing propaganda arm from trying to drum up a “Biden scandal” that they know the NYT reporters will help them exaggerate into something that convinces voters that he is as corrupt – or even more corrupt – than Trump.
After all, John Kerry was out there campaigning, but the NYT and other “liberal” media helped the right wing “swift boat” Kerry anyway. George W. Bush had lied to get the US into an unpopular war, but hey, John Kerry was just as untrustworthy, because he lied about his medals.
Michael Moore should really focus his efforts on doing what Jon Stewart used to do every night on The Daily Show during the Obama-McCain election. He should put the so-called liberal media on notice that if they start helping the right wing “swiftboat” Joe Biden, he and everyone in the comedy world will start making fun – by name – of every mainstream reporter at so-called “liberal” media outlets who exaggerates the faux “scandals” about Biden that the right wing propaganda arm wants to amplify.
Michael Moore should turn his focus on the terrible journalism in which truth and facts are now presented only as partisan beliefs, with “both sides” (truth and lies) being given equal weight as being partisan.
If the media does in 2020 to Biden what they did in 2004 to John Kerry and did in 2016 to HRC, Biden will lose regardless of whether he stays in the basement or is out there talking coherently and passionately about the progressive legislation he will fight for.
And Michael Moore should also be out there talking about the systematically disenfranchisement of non-white voters and how Republicans are using everything in their power to make it almost impossible for them to vote even if they want to vote!
Nancy and Hillary should be backing Jamaal Bowman.
I agree! Jamaal Bowman is the far superior candidate and I wish they would have endorsed him!
But I get that people have different priorities and different issues that are most important to them and I don’t hold it against people if they endorse one candidate over another in the democratic primary if the other candidate is also okay.
I think of those women’s endorsement of Bowman’s opponent the way I think about Bernie Sanders endorsing a pro-DFER, pro-charter candidate for Virginia Governor running against a pro-public education candidate in the democratic primary. Even if I preferred the candidate who was pro-public education, Bernie Sanders had every right to endorse the ed reform candidate because that other candidate had very good positions on many other important issues. And if Bernie’s candidate had won the primary, I would have happily voted for that candidate even if I didn’t like his position on charters. Bernie’s candidate had excellent positions on other issues and there was nothing wrong with Bernie endorsing him.
I think the endorsements of those two women are pretty meaningless, anyway. Go Jamaal Bowman! Keeping my fingers crossed he wins!
If Bowman wins the race, it’s a defeat for the Democratic establishment.
How many legislative seats and governorships were lost before the rise of progressive activists? How far to the right had the party moved?