Prosecutor who investigated Trump allies won’t quit

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 Rudy Giuliani 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, 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 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 handpicked 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, Barr said.

The office has prosecuted a number of Trump associates, including Trump’s former personal lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen, who served time for lying to Congress and campaign finance crimes, and has also been investigating Giuliani and his associates.

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.