If you have been following the trail of breadcrumbs on what looked to be yet another, by now routine, Friday night hatchet job in Trump world, this latest one is not going according to plan and is, in fact, blowing up in Bill Barr’s face as we speak. The basic facts are that the attorney general lied that U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman was “stepping down” from his post at SDNY and would be temporarily replaced by the current U.S, Attorney for the District of New Jersey Craig Carpenito. Berman’s permanent replacement was to be Jay Clayton, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, who has never been a prosecutor, but did do defense work for Deutsche Bank during the Russian money laundering scandal. Clayton would of course have to be confirmed by the Senate.

So that was the set up but it went severely awry when Berman refused to play ball and came out publicly and contradicted Barr.

“I have not resigned, and have no intention of resigning, my position, to which I was appointed by the Judges of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. 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. I cherish every day that I work with the men and women of this Office to pursue justice without fear or favor — and intend to ensure that this Office’s important cases continue unimpeded.”

That put things on an entirely different footing. AlterNet:

This was a dramatic shot across the bow for three reasons.

First, it’s always a high-stakes situation when a subordinate directly contradicts their superior’s public statements — even more so when the statement is about their own position. Berman is, in essence, calling Barr a liar. It seems Barr thought he could push Berman out by sheer bravado, but Berman is showing remarkable fortitude.

Second, Berman is setting up a power struggle for control of SDNY with potential constitutional implications. His claim is that because he was appointed by a judge to fill a vacancy at SDNY, Barr can’t simply force him out; he can only be forced out when the Senate approves a presidential nominee.

Third, and perhaps most importantly, Berman’s repeated reference to his cases, and preserving their integrity, suggests that he believes he is being forced out in order to interfere with an ongoing investigation. We know SDNY has investigated President Donald Trump’s conduct and allies in the past, including Michael Cohen and Rudy Giuliani. Giuliani’s associates — who also have ties directly to Trump — Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman are currently under indictment from the office. This all raises the disturbing prospect that Barr might be trying to push Berman out because his office has uncovered damaging information pertaining to the president.

These are sound observations and this is pretty much the template for all the pieces that will be banged out in the wee hours of Saturday morning and for days to come. As you may recall, in November of 2019 ProPublica did an article on how the Trump Organization had improperly booked reimbursements for the hush-money scheme as “legal expenses,” with the aid of sham invoices. The U.S. Attorney’s office charged Michael Cohen but an ongoing investigation goes beyond him to other members of the Trump organization. It’s been speculated that felony charges could be brought not only against Trump but against his children. At this point it seems to be a safe bet that this action tonight was taken so as to safeguard the Trumps from SDNY, or because there has been some new development at SDNY that Barr sought to immediately quash. At this early stage, speculation is what we have.

These tweets were written a short while before Berman’s statement and the thrust of Berman’s statement is that he’s not going anywhere. He’s digging his heels in and fighting Bill Barr.

Barr played this hand very badly. There may be constitutional issues at play here, if Berman’s legal theory is correct and if Barr attempts to override it by having Trump fire Berman, because Barr can’t legally do it. The spectre of Trump firing a prosecutor investigating a case in which he is a party is a level of abuse of power that even he has not reached yet. It’s on a par with the speculations of whether he could pardon himself, which were bandied about earlier in his administration. It is an axiom of law, not to mention common sense, that a person cannot act as judge in a dispute where s/he is a party. It will be very interesting to see what Trump does with this situation — or what his children advise him to do. This is not the same as buying off an assistant D.A. in Manhattan.

Geoffrey Berman is displaying admirable mettle and this is no routine firing. This is another political hatchet job done for the basest of reasons and we will be finding out exactly what those reasons are, hopefully, very soon. As stated earlier, Jerry Nadler has invited Berman to speak before the House on Wednesday. I expect it to be Rick Bright on steroids.

 

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1 COMMENT

  1. Friday Night Massacre attempt backfires spectaculary…..Ewok Billy Barr thought Berman would bow out gracefully, but Mr. Berman had other ideas.

    I hope Ewok Billy Barr brought his hip boots…..’cause he’s knee deep in the sh!t right now!!!

  2. I wonder what the issue is that would make Ewok risk imprisonment to cover it up and Berman, to feel he has the goods to stand up to the criminal cabal to bring it to light.

    • You’ve nailed it on the head. This is what everybody is asking and feel free to speculate. I think all anybody can do now is go into archived articles, like the ProPublica one I linked to, and see if you can guess which malfeasance of which Trump is finally at the tipping point, and why.

  3. They have also destroyed Radio Free Europe and all its parts. He will probably try to turn it into a reliable propaganda outlet controlled by him. No polls showing Biden ahead by 14 points.

    As to SDNY, that guy showed some real guts. The man donated to Trump’s campaign, but is bucking him big time. I am beginning to feel there is hope.

    • Like that’ll do them any goddamn good at this stage. NOBODY outside the MAGA maggots trust a word from Trump’s government and they sure as hell ain’t stopping CNN or anybody else from spreading the news. This is meant to appease Trump as his brain continues to decompose.

  4. When Preet Bharara was sacked, the Trump administration was too lazy or inept to replace him properly.

    On January 3, 2018, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Berman’s appointment as U.S. Attorney, along with sixteen other former prosecutors, to serve in various offices around the country on an interim basis until the Senate could permanently confirm them. The Trump Administration never nominated Berman or most of the other interim appointments. On April 25, 2018, the Chief Judge of the Southern District of New York entered an order formally on behalf of a unanimous court appointing Berman United States Attorney pursuant to its authority under 28 U.S.C Section 546(d). Berman has the appointment indefinitely, until an individual nominated by the President is confirmed by the Senate.

    As Berman wasn’t appointed by the Trump administration but by the wishes of
    the Southern District of New York itself, (so that they would actually HAVE a D.A. to help administer justice, as required by law.) He remains as DA until THE SENATE confirms his replacement.

    Mr Barr appears to have over-reached himself.

    Again.

    • A LOT of things are in the wind now, the Trump Virus is becoming so much more powerful than the drivel from Trump himself, in a race to the finish, even NOW … Trump is giddy with glee, a chance to blab his hand-clapping disrespect to the Flag and Constitution of These United States, two massively important things to ALL American families, two things borne on the blood and lives of thousands of Americans of many origins … REAL PATRIOTS, his continued mindless acts of cruelty and miss-handling virtually EVERY case where HE should have shown sympathy, empathy and simple common sense … he has nothing to offer, these things are not available in his ironclad stupidity plus his narcissism ….

      We are surely doomed if we allow this charlatan to continue to fail as a boneheaded non-president, feeding the rich their precious, non-earned profits, making private, “deals”, with international despots and kissing up to local GOP mob bosses like McConnell …

      Where there is sorrow and pain from lost lives to the Virus, there IS the fault and total responsibility of Trump, who has, by his early, and continued in-actions and Virus-boosting insistence on horrible exposures … with a complicit GOP, in a scurry/hurry up mode trying to destroy our democracy from within before Trump explodes completely …
      I’m convinced, as crazy as it sounds, that some parts of the information in that brand new, white covered book with the damning words on the front, going into general publication next week, has struck deep into a situation with triggers to pry more guilt from GOP top guns by a House committee or two or three, and Barr’s latest fiasco and Trump’s bouncing around like that steel ball in the old pinball games, shows a cause and effect in a top-down Administration as well …

  5. You know, it takes a special kind of stupid to fail this badly. Bet you anything that Berman is thinking all he has to do is hold out a few more months and the Sovereign District of New York can REALLY go to town on Trump and his people. As to Barr, well, paraphrasing Max Allan Collins, he’s the kind of guy who gives corruption a bad name.

    • Don’t forget the State of New York itself. I think you’re right that a lot of the career prosecutors at SDNY have doggedly gone about doing their jobs even with interference from main DOJ even before Barr got in there. I even think they have some stuff ready to go and are itching to pull the trigger but guys like Berman know what will happen if they do and is having them bide their time and honing cases. Why would he do that? Because if a Trump flunky gets in there, one that Barr has handpicked and who knows how to truly fuck things up a lot of case specific institutional memory will be lost as investigations/prosecutions aren’t just shut down but the people intimately familiar with them are reassigned. And some other actual hacks are brought in to much them up so that down the road even if the original folks are put back on those cases critical momentum will be lost, and outright sabotage in the form of “accidently on purpose” sabotaging of cases/prosecutions might make it difficult to salvage them.

      It’s possible that Barr will have Trump name a new U.S. Attorney for SDNY next week and that McConnell (and Graham) will treat that nominee like a judge and ram it through right away in the midst of everything else going on. I wouldn’t be surprised.

      At the same time however something as ominous as the SDNY hanging over the head of Trump and his cronies and that’s the AG’s office of the State of New York. NY has financial statutes that mirror most federal ones and have just as sharp teeth to them. Like many a sleazy NYC real estate guy Trump managed to slime his way along but his time in the Presidential spotlight, combined with NY state and the Governor’s office having to moderate their “cover” for rich NYC folks like Trump has unleashed an aggressive new AG up there. I think she can nail Trump’s hide (and his kids and Jared) to the wall almost as well as the feds can. In fact, in many ways it might be better for the country if that’s the way it goes down – let the feds go after Rudy G., Manafort and others and let the state of NY go after Trump directly. In fact, faced with the prospect of state vs. federal prison Trump, who after all is from New York surely wants no part of being housed in even a special wing of a place like Attica or Sing Sing. If as I hope the SDNY and the New York AG’s offices are cooperating and coordinating with each other they might play the defendants off against each other and negotiate some sweet, meaningful convictions that include enough jail time to make those asshole in Trump World suffer.

      And of course forfeit their fortunes.

      • Denis,
        You’ve laid out succinctly the potentially explosive crisis we are faced with.

        This is a seminally dangerous tipping point and I am scared the worst will happen.

      • You GOTTA know that coordination you’re speculating on is likely the play here, Denis. My man Hoarse Whisperer reasoned out that this likely goes back to Rudy Colludy’s communications suddenly getting subpoenaed. We all know how loose HIS lips have gotten.

        Now, if Barr thought he was going to be sticking around, he could have buried all this like he did the Mueller probe. Yet, here he is uncharacteristically making a brash move that all but screams “I’ve got something to hide!” Hoarse’s conclusion: this is Barr trying to protect himself in truly desperate fashion because his other options suck even worse. Expect some leaks confirming such soon. Oh and Mitch ain’t putting his Senate majority in more jeopardy just to save Trump or Barr’s ass.

        • Speaking of Rudy, as I recall he wasn’t satisfied with being a U.S. Attorney and wanted into elective politics. Many a U.S. Attorney (and state D.A.) have parlayed a high profile prosecution(s) into elective office. Still, it takes money and in a place like NYC a shitload of it.

          Guess who Rudy’s first big financial backer was? Some real estate dude who made just as big a deal about promoting how “awesome” he was as Rudy G. did. However unless I’m mistaken they didn’t exactly ham it up together on the NYC celebrity circuit and/or make a big deal out of Trump being such an important backer of Rudy. It’s the timing that’s interesting because the feds had been working on a case against Trump and his company and it got closed, then just months later the self-professed Mr. Incorruptible Crime Fighter Rudy G. makes the move into elective politics with some serious start up money in the band from Trump!

          I for one don’t think (and never have) for a minute that after being told by his law firm to take a hike when we decided to “lawyer” for “President” Trump that Rudy did so for free despite all the public claims of pro bono representation. Rudy has never been that rich – and he’s been living large in NYC (a very, very expensive place) the whole time. There’s no telling how much his expense statements are padded and while it would take a combination of serious digging and a bit of luck there’s probably a system for paying Rudy some serious coin. In fact, given how sometimes he’s popped up and made things WORSE for Trump I’ve sometimes wondered if Trump had started stiffing him and he was throwing public shots across the bow to pay up or else.

          I doubt Rudy ever considered the possibility that the jurisdiction he once led would turn on one of their own. However he hasn’t been one of them for a very, very long time. Most of the career folks there came along after Rudy was gone and playing the role of big shot politician. And despite that quasi “unit” of Clinton haters in the FBI up there most of those assholes are also retired and enough new blood has come along that old retirees probably don’t hold much sway with the agents up there now. Who btw probably aren’t nearly as likely to be persuaded to look for other crimes when Trump and the rest of his gang have spent so much time and effort trashing their beloved FBI. They don’t have to do anything special – just straight/fair and by the book and that means if they are allowed to look (IOW assigned to a case involving Trump, Rudy et al) they will simply do their jobs in the non-partisan way they are supposed to. And THAT will be seriously bad news for Team Turdmaggot!

  7. I empathize with your laudatory piece, but this is a ticking time bomb unless I’m missing something. What is keeping the Senate from confirming a replacement? Or Trump from firing him tomorrow? In our present nightmare scenario, trump and his cabal have dared to commit similarly quasi-legal brazen acts numerous times and have gotten away with it.
    Much as I hope you are spot-on, what is different here?

    • They have to find a nominee who will be acceptable – and Lindsey Graham has announced his committee is going to honor blue slips from the NY senators.

      • Oh, bad news. NY is represented by two of the most progressive members of the Senate, including the minority leader (Schumer) and one of the most kickass progressives in the entire place (Gillibrand). Gillibrand has stood against more Trump appointees than anyone. She truly has no more fucks to give.

    • So far as I can deduce, this is a stand off. Yes, Trump can fire him, but if he does and it’s found that he was working on an investigation involving Trump, then how crooked does that look? How defensible would Trump’s posture be? “Yes, I fired him, but not because he was investigating me, but because he was a really bad hombre” or some idiocy. And Clayton’s confirmation won’t happen overnight. And I don’t know if senators up for reelection in an already horrible climate are going to rubber stamp another controversial appointee this close to election day. This is a bad eff up on Barr’s part. But that said, Barr probably wouldn’t have tried it at all unless there was compelling reason to do so and we don’t know what that reason is. But Berman does. And that’s what’s going to be interesting.

      • Barr is trying to save himself per Hoarse Whisperer. Rudy’s communications suddenly getting subpoenaed, which has potential to implicate Barr enough to make him share a cell with Trump, is a hell of a motivator. Whatever is really going on is going to come to light. The Buddha anticipated this admin when he said, “Three things cannot stay long hidden: the sun, the moon and the truth.”

    • Elections…THAT’S what’s different. The number of vulnerable GOP Senators grows daily and we’re down to five months from November. They do a vote like this, it’s got potential to “flip the Senate” as Claire McCaskill pointed out. So Mitch is stuck with a Catch-22 on this one. He does anything on this, bet on it being a slow walk.

    • Observe the current trajectory of recent events…what has been the real downside in standing up to Trump as opposed to standing up to him? Berman made that calculation and is therefore doing what he’s doing.

  10. Hey. America wake the phuck up. We now have a criminal dictator thanks to the evil murderous hypocrisy taught in churches, schools and the public airwaves. My 5 uncles served in WWII, a time beyond reason & “talk”. What makes any of you think this won’t require the same level of sacrifice to stop fascism? They understand only power. They use violence, propoganda, and the peoples’ self interest, ignorance, etc. To keep power. They WILL DO OR SAY ANYTHING TO KEEP IT! either smarten up or practice your ability to march to fascism. The time for self delusion IS OVER!

  11. Barr, I think, has lowered his bar so much that he seems to feel anyone can eliminate any position he wants to eliminate. So far, though, Barr is being barred from trying to bar the SDNY attorney from the bar. Don’t look like it’s working, so far.

  12. Well basically you have a US attorney basically telling the Attorney General to kiss his ass. As he is not going for the puppet routine in President Clown ? Trumps circus ? To bad really since this was definitely another attempt to obstruct justice by the clowns of DC.

  13. Welp, this is truly one of those I reserve this language for: a clusterf**K………..

    Just when you think it can’t get any worse, or more stupid, there it is, stupid on steroids.

    Said this the other day about another issue–saying it again: the American people by and large do not like being underestimated. These clowns are doing it again, this time with SDNY; and tonight with a rally in Covid-ville, that is, Tulsa; and with the ginning up of a race riot tonight by calling peaceful protesters lowlifes and threatening them; and with folks young and old dying in droves all over the South and Southwest; and the economy posting more job losses just the other day; and the beat goes on.

    • Harry Truman once talked about how the American people can always spot a phony. It may take a while but they find ’em. That seems to be what’s happening here.

  14. Greetings!

    Last June 13th I turned 76, born exactly one week to the day after D-Day. I have always relished that thought with pride. What better time to be born than at the cusp of a horrible war of wars coming to its end?

    I served our great Republic as a young U.S. Air Force Sergeant many years ago when a much younger man. I stood proud, flush with love of country. Not today. I have watched this once great land continue its downward spiral since Ronald Reagan, the Great Destroyer.

    As to Barr vs. Berman, hopefully Berman has the upper hand since he was appointed to his position by the Court. I hope Berman stands tough as he watches Barr eat his own excrement.

    Yet, today’s America is right where fascist Republicans and weakling Democrats would have her. Self over Party; Party over everything else. Frankly, I am as disgusted with Pelosi and Schumer as I am with McConnell, Graham, McCarthy, Kennedy, Gaetz, Jordan . . Damn! The Republicans even earned the longer list of infidels. That is not to call Pelosi and Schumer infidels. They simply are compliant bystanders in this rotting of America.

    Trump’s followers see him as coronated by God. Hmm. Didn’t former General Boykin say the same about George W. Bush? Have any one of those idolaters thought about how heretical and blaspheming their positions are? As an ordained graduate theologian, I urge caution on their part: Taking on God & Jesus and asserting equal authority with them is a religiously dangerous podium to stand behind.

    So. I likely have waxed on to the point your eyes are glazing over! There is more, but I shall spare you. ?

    Thank you for the work you do. God Save America, because no one else can.

    Best regards,

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