On the warpath against everything good and decent
(People, Programs, and Policy)
He has only one view: Him
on top above the law
(And, he has the record to
prove it)
Second Major Update of the
Following Story (and so typical Trump) Pass the blame for his action(s) – this
update here
from The Hill – highlights those Trump tactics follow:
White House press secretary
Kayleigh McEnany on Monday (June 22) defended the administration's abrupt firing of one
of the government's top prosecutors and sought to downplay President Trump's
involvement.
Trump’s ploy key elements according to the article and McEnany’s
statement.
McEnany at a press briefing sought to explain conflicting
explanations of Trump's involvement about the Berman case saying: “The attorney
general was taking the lead on this matter. He did come to the president and
report to him when Mr. Berman decided not to leave, and at that point is when
the president agreed with the attorney general. He was involved in a sign-off
capacity.”
She then denied Berman was
fired because he led or was leading investigations into former Trump lawyer
Michael Cohen, current Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, two of Giuliani’s associates,
or about the late Jeffrey Epstein (close acquaintance of Trump).
She did not specify why the
administration wanted Berman to leave the post immediately instead of waiting
for a Senate-confirmed replacement.
But she said the president nominated
Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton for the role because
Clayton "wanted to go back to New York City, and we wanted to keep him in
government and therefore he was given the position at SDNY to replace Berman.
(NOTE:
Clayton has zero prosecutor experience.)
The conflict:
Barr earlier announced that Trump had fired Berman, and that
Berman's deputy would take over the job until the Senate confirmed a new
attorney for the post. Trump after that told reporters that he was "not
involved in Berman's ouster,” that despite Barr saying he had approved the
firing.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Original post and first
update follow from here.
WASHINGTON (AP) — An unusual standoff between AG Barr and
Manhattan's top federal prosecutor, Geoffrey Berman ended today (June 20) when
Berman suddenly agreed to leave his job with an assurance that investigations
by the prosecutor's office into the president's allies would not be disturbed.
Berman announced in an early
evening statement that he would leave his post, ending increasingly nasty
exchanges between Barr and Berman. Trump, meanwhile (as usual in these sticky
cases) distanced himself from the dispute, telling reporters the decision “… was all up to the Attorney General.”
In a letter made public by the DOJ Barr said he expected to continue
speaking with Berman about other possible positions within the department and
was surprised by the Berman statement he released.
Barr wrote: “Unfortunately,
with your statement of last night, you have chosen public spectacle over public
service. Your statement also wrongly implies that your continued tenure in the
office is necessary to ensure that cases now pending in the Southern District
of New York are handled appropriately. This is obviously false.”
Barr said Trump had
removed Berman, but Trump told reporters (in true Trump fashion to pass the
blame to anyone except himself): “That’s all up to
the attorney general. Attorney General Barr is working on that. That’s his
department, not my department. I wasn't involved.”
Barr offered no explanation
for his action. The White House announced that Trump was nominating SEC Chairman
Jay Clayton, a well-connected Wall Street lawyer with no experience as a
federal prosecutor, for the job.
“It ain’t over till it’s over” (famous quip by Yogi Berra
applicable), so stay tuned.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Trump
fires Geoffrey S. Berman, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New
York (SDNY). Berman refused to step down after AG Barr told
him to. Berman’s office brought a series of highly sensitive cases that has
both worried and angered Trump and others in his inner circle. But legal quick
sand stands in Trump’s/Barr’s way – and it shows the dumbasses they truly are –
cite:
While the president appoints
most U.S. attorneys following Senate confirmation, a
law permits the AG to appoint a prosecutor to fill those vacancies for
120 days. If that temporary appointment expires, Federal judges can fill it and
then [… a prosecutor appointed by the court will “serve until the vacancy is
filled,” the statute says]. That is Berman’s case right now.
Berman was initially appointed by
former AG Jeff Sessions, and the federal judges in Manhattan reappointed him
after the 120-day period had expired.
Berman in his statement says that Barr could not fire him because he had been appointed by the
court. He then declared that he intended to remain in office until the Senate confirms a
successor saying clearly: “I have not resigned, and have no intention of
resigning, my position, to which I was appointed by the judges of the United
States District Court for the Southern District of New York. I will step down
when a presidentially appointed nominee is confirmed by the Senate.”
I note: This will surely make it to
the Supreme Court, and I think Trump and Barr will be slammed. More follows.
Barr, in his letter on
Saturday (June 20), cited a 1979 law, saying: “It is well-established that a
court-appointed U.S. attorney is subject to removal by the president.”
In 1979 the then-OLC John Harmon
under Carter wrote that office (OLC) has concluded that the president — not
the AG — could fire such an official (120-day Court appointed such as Berman).
In that 1979 OLC memorandum opinion, Harmon went on to cite the law that says
presidents may fire U.S. attorneys (story here).
The law’s broad wording makes
sense, Harman wrote, “… only if it is applied not just to presidentially
appointed U.S. attorneys but also is to be read as extending to ‘each’ U.S.
attorney, including the court-appointed ones whom the president could not
remove without congressional leave.” (Again: this Berman case)
District court judges in
Manhattan may be inclined to disagree and back an alternative interpretation
that keeps in their hands the power to remove a U.S. attorney they appointed.
But if potential litigation
over the issue were to go all the way to the Supreme Court (majority currently
are Republican appointees steeped in a conservative ideology of White House
power that includes a robust view of the president’s ability to remove
officials) it could support Trump.
Harmon wrote in 1979, in that
way “… it might violate constitutional protections for due process of law if
judges overseeing cases as neutral arbiters had the power to fire prosecutors
if the judges did not like how they handled their responsibilities.”
Folks this is very sticky, why you ask as I have: Why is Trump so damn
scared and firing people for doing their duly-appointed jobs?
Easy peasy –
the heat is on Trump and his corrupt ways and he knows it, thus he is scared
sh*tless and has to remove and all investigators getting to close – just that simple.
So, what is Trump all uptight about? Three big issues here:
First, there was the arrest and prosecution in 2018 of his long-time personal lawyer, Michael
Cohen (Trump’s longtime legal fixer).
Second, there was the indictment last year of a state-owned bank in Turkey that
Trump tried to get dismissed as a favor to Turkish president that Bolton writes
about in his book saying: “Trump had promised the Recep Tayyip Erdogan in 2018
that he would intervene in the investigation of the bank, which had been
accused of violating sanctions against Iran and get it dropped/stopped.”
Third, Berman and his prosecutors
had launched an inquiry into Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s current personal lawyer
and the indictment of two of Giuliani’s cronies (NY Times extract): Lev Parnas
and Igor Fruman.
Both indicted for violating federal campaign finance laws.
The bottom line at this stage.
Barr’s attempt to fire Berman
got pushback on Saturday (June 20) from an unexpected source: Senator Lindsey
Graham (R-SC) close ally of Trump and currently the chairman of the Senate
Judiciary Committee — the body that would approve Clayton’s nomination to
replace Berman (Clayton at SEC, BTW has never been a prosecutor) — suggested in
a statement that he would allow NY’s two Democratic senators (Schumer and
Gillibrand) to thwart the nomination through a procedural maneuver. He also complimented Clayton but noted that he had n
Schumer urged Clayton to
withdraw his name from consideration for the post and called for an
investigation into the decision to dismiss Berman.
The move to push Berman out
echoes Barr’s decision earlier this year to remove Jessie Liu from her role as
the U.S. attorney in Washington, after Trump’s allies complained to the
president and the AG that she was not sufficiently loyal. (Loyalty to Trump is
key whether they are doing a great or shitty job – or so it seems).
And, of course these wild Trump IG firings on top of the above as seen here my earlier post.
My 2 cents: Painfully clear (again) that Trump truly wants only a
one-man (him) government structure in our country. That must not stand or be
allowed.
The evidence is clear – Trump is totally out of control and way, way
out of his depth in the knowledge department and the country has suffered
enough and we still have 5 months until election – image the wrath Trump can
wreak and the havoc he can create.
Very troubling isn’t it?
Thanks for stopping by.
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