- Geoffrey Berman, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York, is stepping down, Attorney General William Barr announced late Friday.
- The SDNY is conducting multiple investigations into Trump associates including his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. Under Berman’s leadership, the SDNY also indicted Turkey’s Halkbank even though Barr and President Trump both reportedly tried to intervene to stop the case from moving forward.
- HuffPost reported that Berman’s “departure was not all all expected,” and ABC News characterized it as a firing, adding that Barr offered Berman other jobs at the DOJ, but Berman declined.
- CNN also reported that Berman was “forced out” of his job and that Barr asked him to resign but Berman refused to do so.
- President Donald Trump will nominate Jay Clayton, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), to replace Berman.
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Attorney General William Barr announced Friday that Geoffrey Berman, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York, is resigning.
President Donald Trump will nominate Jay Clayton, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), to replace Berman, Barr said.
The attorney general added that at his recommendation, while the Senate considers Clayton’s nomination, Trump has appointed Craig Carpenito, the US attorney for the District of New Jersey, to serve as acting US attorney for the SDNY.
“This appointment will be effective July 3, and Craig will work closely with the outgoing United States Attorney to ensure a smooth transition,” Barr said. “I thank Craig for his continued service and for taking on this important interim responsibility.”
Berman’s abrupt resignation will likely draw scrutiny amid Trump’s ongoing efforts to tighten his grip on the Justice Department. The SDNY, in particular, is conducting multiple investigations into Trump associates including his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. The office also successfully prosecuted Trump’s longtime former lawyer, Michael Cohen.
Barr did not say if Berman was asked to step down or if he resigned of his own volition, and the Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But HuffPost reporter Ryan Reilly tweeted that his resignation was unplanned.
“I’m told Geoffrey Berman just sent a video message to SDNY employees yesterday talking about proper use of PPE,” Reilly tweeted, referring to personal protective equipment. “His departure was not all all expected.”
ABC News reporter Katherine Faulders characterized Berman’s departure as a firing.
“The news came as a shock tonight,” she tweeted, adding that sources said Barr offered Berman other positions, like the head of the DOJ’s Civil Division, but Berman declined.
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins also tweeted that Berman was “forced out,” and that Barr asked him to resign but Berman refused to do so.
Berman served as the US attorney for SDNY for two and a half years. He took over the position from Preet Bharara, whom Trump fired in 2017.
CNN reported that tensions between Berman and Barr have heated up recently as the two men butted heads over the handling of some cases, including the department’s indictment of the Turkish state-owned bank Halkbank. Turkey spent millions of dollars lobbying the White House, Congress, and the State Department to ask the Justice Department not to investigate the bank.
Former national security adviser John Bolton claimed in his upcoming book that Trump assured Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that he would intervene to stop the SDNY’s Halkbank investigation.
CNN also reported in February that Barr “personally spearheaded” an effort last year to shield Halkbank from prosecution and negotiate a settlement with the bank that would have allowed it to avoid being indicted. The SDNY ultimately charged Halkbank in federal court for its alleged participation in a multi-billion dollar Iranian effort to sidestep sanctions.
In March, Berman made headlines when he asserted his office’s independence from “partisan political concerns.”
“The Southern District of New York has a long history of integrity and pursuing cases and declining to pursue cases based only on the facts and the law and the equities, without regard to partisan political concerns,” he said on March 9. “My primary commitment is and has been to maintain those core values and that’s how our office is operating.”
Berman’s statement came after Barr and senior Justice Department leaders made the unprecedented decision to publicly overrule prosecutors working on the case against the Trump ally and former Republican strategist Roger Stone to seek a lesser sentence for him.
All four prosecutors withdrew from the case after the sentencing reversal.
