Update: US Attorney from SDNY defies Donald Trump, says he’s refusing to resign
Barely an hour ago, the Department of Justice announced that Geoffrey Berman, the U.S. Attorney for the SDNY, was abruptly resigning and was being immediately replaced by an acting U.S. Attorney. But now Berman says he hasn’t resigned, and he won’t resign unless the Senate confirms a permanent replacement for him.
This startling escalation, reported on-air just now by NBC News, sets up a high stakes battle. This makes clear that the Trump-Barr DOJ announced Geoffrey Berman’s “resignation” without his knowledge or consent, meaning the DOJ press release announcing the resignation was a lie. Now that Berman is publicly fighting back and refusing to go along with it, will Trump and Barr try to take legal action to immediately force Berman out of the job?
The noteworthy quote from Berman is that “our [SDNY] investigations will move forward without delay or interruption.” This appears to confirm our suspicion that Trump and Barr were trying to oust Berman in the hope of killing an existing criminal investigation into one of Donald Trump’s entities or allies in Manhattan. It could be the Trump Organization, or Trump’s family, or Rudy Giuliani, or the Turkish bank that John Bolton’s book says Trump is desperate to protect.
In any case, this just became an even larger story. With Geoffrey Berman clearly looking for a fight, there’s no doubt that even if Trump and Barr do manage to force him out, he’ll go public and reveal whatever antics are going on here. If Trump and Barr were expecting Berman to roll over, they’ve severely miscalculated.
