WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. Attorney General William Barr said on Saturday that President Donald Trump had fired Geoffrey Berman, the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan whose office is investigating Trump’s attorney Rudolph Giuliani, after Berman publicly refused to step down from his post.
In a letter to Berman, Barr said he was “surprised and quite disappointed” by Berman’s statement late on Friday night in which he refused to quit his job, saying Berman had chosen “public spectacle over public service.”
“I have asked the President to remove you as of today, and he has done so,” Barr said, adding that the Deputy U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss for the Southern District on New York, will become the Acting U.S. Attorney until a permanent replacement is installed.
A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York declined to comment on whether Berman would leave the post.
Speaking to reporters as he left the White House for a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Trump appeared to contradict Barr’s letter, saying Berman’s firing was a matter for Barr and was not his “department.”
“Attorney General Barr is working on that. That’s his department, not my department… that’s really up to him. I’m not involved,” Trump said.
Berman’s termination marks another remarkable development in an escalating crisis at the Justice Department that started on Friday night, when Barr unexpectedly announced that Berman was stepping down and would be replaced by U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton.
Berman, however, issued a statement of his own, saying he had no intention of stepping down until the Senate confirms his successor, and that his office’s investigations would continue.
The standoff follows the latest in a series of unusual moves by Barr that critics say are meant to benefit Trump politically and undermine the independence of the Justice Department.
It also comes as Trump seeks to purge officials perceived as not fully supporting him. In recent weeks he has fired a series of agency watchdogs, including one who played a key role in Trump’s impeachment earlier this year.
Berman’s office, which is known for prosecuting terrorism cases, Wall Street financial crimes and government corruption, has not shied from taking on figures in Trump’s orbit.
It oversaw the prosecution of Michael Cohen, Trump’s former personal lawyer, indicted two Giuliani associates and launched a probe into Giuliani in connection with his efforts to dig up dirt on Trump’s political adversaries in Ukraine.
Giuliani has not formally been accused of any wrongdoing.
BOLTON’S BOOK
John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser, also alleges in a new book the president once promised Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan he would oust prosecutors in Berman’s office who were investigating a Turkish bank, Halkbank, for evading U.S. sanctions against Iran.
“The president said to Erdogan at one point, ‘Look, those prosecutors in New York are Obama people. Wait till I get my people in and then we’ll take care of this.’” Bolton told ABC News in a pre-taped interview set to air on Sunday.
Berman’s office ultimately secured an indictment against the bank, and the case is ongoing.
Barr, in his letter to Berman, said his departure would not impede ongoing investigations, and that any allegations of improper interference in a case should be referred to the Justice Department’s inspector general.
“I fully expect that the office will continue to handle all cases in the normal course and pursuant to the Department’s applicable standards, policies, and guidance,” Barr wrote.
On Friday night, Barr had said he planned to install Craig Carpenito, the U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, as Acting U.S. Attorney in Manhattan.
But in his letter on Saturday the attorney general said he would instead designate Strauss, Berman’s hand-picked No. 2 in the office, to take over in an acting capacity.
A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan declined to comment on whether Strauss would accept the position.
As for Clayton, his nomination appeared on thin ice on Saturday, after both Democratic Senators from New York voiced their opposition and urged him to withdraw his name from consideration.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham signaled on Saturday that he would not proceed with reviewing the nomination unless both Senators from New York consented. But he also defended Trump’s firing of Berman, saying it was “within the president’s power.”
Clayton could not be reached for comment.
