Geoffrey S. Berman, the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, agrees to step down after the Trump administration fired him. Attorney General William Barr initially said Berman resigned. Deputy U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss will fill the post temporarily.
Geoffrey S. Berman, United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, arrives to his office in New York on Saturday, June 20, 2020. The Justice Department moved abruptly Friday night to oust Berman, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan overseeing key prosecutions of President Donald Trump’s allies and an investigation of his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani. But Berman said he was refusing to leave his post and his ongoing investigations would continue.
In a letter made public by the Justice Department Saturday afternoon, Barr said he expected to continue speaking with Berman about other possible positions within the department and was “surprised and quite disappointed” by the statement he released. Berman initially planned to remain in his job until a replacement was confirmed, but he changed his mind late Saturday after Barr said he would allow Berman’s second in command, Deputy U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss, to become acting U.S. attorney.“I could leave the District in no better hands than Audrey’s,” Berman said. He added that her appointment meant Barr had decided “to respect the normal operation of law.
The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said he was unlikely to proceed with Clayton’s nomination unless New York’s senators, Democrats Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, gave their consent to the pick. Schumer said the bid to oust Berman “reeks of potential corruption of the legal process,” and Gillibrand said she would “not be complicit” in helping fire a prosecutor investigating corruption.
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