Barr: US Attorney stepping down
Geoffrey Berman, of New York, however, says he’s not resigned
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department said Friday the U.S. attorney who oversaw key prosecutions of President Donald Trump’s allies and an investigation of his personal lawyer Rudy Giulani had left his job, but he insisted he had not resigned and his ongoing investigations would continue.
Attorney General William Barr said in a statement that Geoffrey S. Berman was stepping down as the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. The office is one of the nation’s top districts, trying major mob cases and terror cases over the years.
But Berman said in a statement later that he’d learned he was stepping down from “press reports.”
“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,” he said.
Barr’s announcement late Friday came after he visited New York City, and no reason was given for the abrupt departure. It was followed by a statement from the White House nominating the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission to the job, a lawyer with virtually no experience as a federal prosecutor.
It comes days after allegations surfaced from former Trump national security adviser John Bolton that Trump sought to interfere in an Southern District investigation into the Turkish Halkbank in an effort to cut deals with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The U.S. attorney in New Jersey, Craig Carpenito, will serve as the acting U.S. attorney in Manhattan beginning July 3, Barr said.
Before taking the reins at the SEC, Clayton was a well-connected Wall Street lawyer who represented and advised a number of major companies, including Goldman Sachs, Barclays, Deutsche Bank and UBS.
The Southern District office has 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, and has also been investigating Giuliani and his associates. Berman had recused himself from directly overseeing the Cohen investigation for reasons never disclosed.
Berman has also 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.
Federal prosecutors in New York are investigating Giuliani’s business dealings, including whether he failed to register as a foreign agent, according to people familiar with the probe.