NY DISTRICT ATTORNEY WON’T QUIT DESPITE PRESSURE FROM TRUMP, BARR

The Department of Justice moved abruptly Friday to oust Geoffrey S. Berman, the US attorney in Manhattan overseeing key prosecutions of President Donald Trump’s allies and an investigation of his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, has refused to leave his post and vowed to pursue all of his ongoing investigations, Michael Balsamo and Colleen Long wrote for the Associated Press (AP) at noon on Saturday, June 20, 2020.

Berman, a Republican and former associate of Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, declared: “I have not resigned, and have no intention of resigning, my position.”

His declaration belied Attorney General Bill Barr’s claim that Berman, who contributed to Trump’s campaign, would step down from his position. The standoff set off an extraordinary clash between the DOJ and one of the nation’s top districts, which has tried major mob and terror cases over the years. It is also likely to deepen tensions between the DOJ and congressional Democrats who have pointedly accused Barr of politicizing the agency and acting more like Trump’s personal lawyer than the nation’s chief law enforcement officer.

The move to oust Berman came days after allegations surfaced from former Trump national security adviser John Bolton that the president sought to interfere in an Southern District investigation into the state-owned Turkish bank in an effort to cut deals with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Barr offered no explanation for the move in the statement he issued late Friday. The White House quickly announced that Trump was nominating the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to the job, a lawyer with virtually no experience as a federal prosecutor.