On Saturday, former FBI Director James Comey lashed out at Attorney General Bill Barr and President Trump for firing SDNY US Attorney Geoffrey Berman.
On Friday, AG Barr fired Mueller hack and US Attorney Geoffrey Berman, while nominating Jay Clayton to replace him.
The crooked attorney refused to step down and released a statement of his own, which AG Barr referred to as a ‘public spectacle.’
Geoffrey Berman’s office was the lead in several high profile cases assembled by Robert Mueller and Andrew Weissmann.
James Comey whined in a WaPo op-ed that AG Barr and President Trump fired a US Attorney who was “handling cases close to the president.”
“Something stinks.” Comey wrote.
“There has always been a tension — much of it healthy — between Washington and the Southern District, but the attempt to fire the current United States attorney feels very different. Geoffrey Berman’s office has apparently been handling cases very close to the president. In 136 days, there is an election that the incumbent appears likely to lose. The attorney general, surely not proceeding on his own, acts to bump the well-regarded head of the Office on a Friday night, in the middle of a pandemic. Something stinks.
The country is well-served by the independent spirit and reputation of the Southern District of New York. It has long been the place where hard cases could be done in a way Americans trusted. It was where Bill Clinton’s 11th-hour pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich could be credibly investigated. It is also the place with jurisdiction over so much of this president’s complicated life.
And it is a place that follows the facts alone to reach conclusions, without regard to politics, just as Stimson wanted. Maybe that’s why William P. Barr moved to knock off Berman on a Friday night and announced President Trump’s intention to replace him with someone who has never worked there. And maybe that’s why Berman, in the finest traditions of the office, stood up.”
President Trump fired Geoffrey Berman on Saturday after the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York refused a request by Attorney General William Barr to resign Friday night.
AG Barr offered Berman higher positions within the DOJ, but Berman declined and instead publicly ranted that he could not be removed from office.
