\n\n“President Donald Trump has fired Geoffrey Berman, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan who has led investigations of the president\u2019s inner circle. Berman had refused to step down from his post Friday after US Attorney General Bill Barr attempted to oust him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Barr, who has long been accused<\/a> of protecting Trump\u2019s close allies, announced Berman\u2019s resignation in a press release<\/a> late Friday in an apparent effort to draw little attention to the matter. He named Jay Clayton, the current chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, who has no experience as a prosecutor, as Trump\u2019s pick for Berman\u2019s successor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But within hours, Berman countered that he did not, and would not, tender his resignation and that the first he had heard of it was from Barr\u2019s press release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI have not resigned, and have no intention of resigning, my position,\u201d Berman said<\/a> in a statement. \u201cI will step down when a presidentially appointed nominee is confirmed by the Senate. Until then, our investigations will move forward without delay or interruption.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Saturday, however, Barr told Berman in a letter that the president had fired him: \u201cBecause you have declared you have no intention of resigning, I have asked the President to remove you as of today, and he has done so,\u201d wrote Barr. Berman\u2019s deputy, Audrey Strauss, will serve as the acting US attorney in Manhattan until his replacement is confirmed by the Senate, according to the Washington Post<\/a>.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n …<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Berman has been investigating Giuliani\u2019s efforts to find damaging information in Ukraine about Trump\u2019s political opponents to determine whether he violated laws on lobbying for foreign entities. He has also indicted two of Giuliani\u2019s business associates and successfully pursued a case against Trump\u2019s former attorney Michael Cohen, who pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about Trump\u2019s plans to build a skyscraper in Moscow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Berman is not the first official who the Trump administration has ousted in recent months. Trump also fired<\/a> Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson, who played a central role in bringing the whistleblower complaint at the heart of the Democrats\u2019 impeachment inquiry to light, and State Department Inspector General Steve Linick<\/a>, who was reportedly investigating Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n …<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The Justice Department has historically operated independently from the executive branch, but under Trump, that paradigm has appeared to change.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n