Berman is ‘about doing the right thing and law’

THE US prosecutor seeking to question the Duke of York as a witness was personally interviewed by Donald Trump for his job and used to be a law partner of Rudy Giuliani.

Geoffrey Berman, a Republican, is a dogged, no-nonsense attorney, famed for being a hands-on workaholic who will stop at nothing to resolve a case.

Former colleagues described him as so committed and efficient that he has only ever left the office early once – and that was the evening he first met his wife, Joanne.

Mr Berman, 60, the US attorney for the southern district of New York, is also described by colleagues as much more low-profile than previous holders of his office, including James Comey and Preet Bharara.

It makes his public statement about the Duke in March all the more surprising. According to William Treanor, dean of Georgetown University Law Centre in Washington, Mr Berman is “very low-key”, and “not a ‘Look at me!’ type of person”.

Mr Berman oversees at least 200 prosecutors in New York. In 2016, he donated to Mr Trump’s presidential campaign, and half was refunded because he had given twice the amount allowed. In January 2018, Mr Berman was interviewed by Mr Trump. At the time, Democrats objected to his appointment.

However, people who know Mr Berman reject the idea of his being a presidential ally, and his office has since carried out various investigations into individuals in Mr Trump’s orbit, including the president’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen.

Mary Jo White, a former US attorney, said Mr Berman was “not about politics. He’s about doing the right thing and the law”.

Mr Berman was born in Trenton, New Jersey, and his family owned a minor ice hockey team. He went to the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania – the same as Mr Trump, but not at the same time. Mr Berman then got his law degree from Stanford.

In the late 1980s he worked for the independent counsel investigating the Iran-contra affair. He made his name as a lawyer in the southern district of New York in the early 1990s when he successfully prosecuted a hacking group called the Masters of Deception.

Mr Berman then went into private practice at the same law firm that employed Mr Giuliani, before returning to head the US southern district of New York.