U.S. attorney in New York disputes Barr on his leaving
WASHINGTON —The Justice Department said Friday the U.S. attorney who oversaw key prosecutions of President Trump’s allies and an investigation of his personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani had left his job, but he insisted he had not resigned and his ongoing investigations would continue.
Atty. Gen. 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, having tried major mob 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 learned in a press release from the attorney general tonight that I was ‘stepping down’ as United States attorney. I have not resigned, and have no intention of resigning, my position,” Berman said.
“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.”
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 in a book from former Trump national security advisor John Bolton that Trump sought to interfere in a Southern District investigation into the Turkish Halkbank in an effort to cut deals with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“Doesn’t sound like ‘stepping down,’ ” Preet Bharara, the previous permanent U.S. attorney there, said in a tweet Friday. “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?”
Trump intends to nominate SEC Chairman Jay Clayton to the post, Barr said. The U.S. attorney in New Jersey, Craig Carpenito, will serve as the acting U.S. attorney in Manhattan beginning July 3, he said.
The New York 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. He had recused himself from directly overseeing the Cohen investigation for reasons that were never disclosed.
Berman also oversaw 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 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. The people were not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Berman has taken a direct hand in other investigations that have angered Trump.
Bolton’s tell-all, excerpts of which were published in the media this week, included details on how Trump sought to cut a deal to halt the Southern District’s investigation into whether Halkbank violated U.S. sanctions against Iran to free an American pastor in Turkey. Six weeks after the pastor’s release, Bolton writes that on a call with Erdogan, “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.” The episode occurred months after Berman assumed the role of U.S. attorney.