Attorney general: Trump fires prosecutor
But president says decision is Barr’s
President Donald Trump dismissed Manhattan’s chief federal prosecutor Geoffrey Berman on Saturday after the prosecutor who had launched a series of criminal inquiries targeting the president’s allies refused to resign, Attorney General William Barr said in a letter to Berman.
“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,” Barr wrote.
Barr said Deputy U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss would serve as the acting chief of the office until a permanent successor could be seated.
Berman said he would step down “effective immediately,” claiming in a statement that Barr’s decision “to respect the normal operation of law and have Deputy U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss become Acting U.S. Attorney” led to his decision.
Almost as soon as the letter was made public, however, Trump appeared to distance himself from the attorney general’s statement, saying that the decision to remove Berman was Barr’s to make.
“I’m not involved,” Trump told reporters before departing for a campaign rally in Oklahoma.
The action came after an extraordinary confrontation late Friday night in which Barr first announced that Berman would be “stepping down,” only to have the prosecutor fire back that he had no intention of resigning his post.
The clash thrust the Justice Department into fresh turmoil, raising new questions about its independence from a White House that has sought to remove members of the administration it has cast as disloyal.
“Unfortunately, with your statement of last night, you have chosen public spectacle over public service,” Barr said in the letter, referring to the prosecutor’s refusal to capitulate.
“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. This is obviously false. I fully expect that the office will continue to handle
“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.”
Attorney General William Barr in letter to Geoffrey Berman
all cases in the normal course and pursuant to the Department’s applicable standards, policies, and guidance. Going forward, if any actions or decisions are taken that office supervisors conclude are improper interference with a case, that information should be provided immediately to Michael Horowitz, the Department of Justice’s Inspector General.”
Barr said he was asking Horowitz to review any claims of improper interference.
The crucial Justice Department office has prosecuted Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen and is heading an investigation of the president’s attorney and close adviser Rudy Giuliani.
The Giuliani inquiry has focused in part on the former New York mayor’s work with business associates Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, who helped Giuliani seek damaging information in Ukraine about the family of Joe Biden, the former vice president and presumptive Democratic nominee for president in the 2020 election.