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Top Manhattan Prosecutor Ousted by Trump Details Firing
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/09/us/politics/top-manhattan-prosecutor-ousted-by-trump-details-firing.html?referringSource=articleShareGeoffrey S. Berman, whom President Trump abruptly dismissed last month as the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, told lawmakers on Thursday that Attorney General William P. Barr tried unsuccessfully to pressure him to resign voluntarily, warning that being fired could ruin his career.
Testifying privately before the House Judiciary Committee, Mr. Berman recounted being summoned with no warning in June to a meeting with Mr. Barr at the Pierre Hotel in New York. The attorney general asked him to step down and offered him prominent government posts if he would do so. Mr. Berman said he rebuffed Mr. Barr time and again during what he described as a tense, 45-minute discussion, telling him he would not resign and he did not want to be fired.
Mr. Barr repeatedly tried to change Mr. Berman’s mind, he testified, warning “that getting fired from my job would not be good for my résumé or future job prospects.”
“I told the attorney general that there were important investigations in the office that I wanted to see through to completion,” Mr. Berman told the committee members.
In prepared testimony released by the committee and under subsequent questioning, Mr. Berman declined to address Mr. Barr’s motive for his dismissal as the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, or to discuss the highly sensitive corruption investigations of members of Mr. Trump’s inner circle that his office oversaw.
But under questioning, Mr. Berman called the attorney general’s actions irregular and said they raised serious concerns in his mind. He told lawmakers that he believed that Mr. Barr’s plan to replace him with an outsider would “delay and disrupt” important cases under his watch. And when asked specifically by Republicans whether Mr. Barr had offered him a quid pro quo, he said he believed the description would fit an offer of a job in return for his resignation, according to three people familiar with the testimony who spoke on the condition of anonymity because it was private.
Mr. Barr’s critics have contended that the attorney general was acting based on Mr. Trump’s distaste for Mr. Berman and the sensitive inquiries involving the president that his office oversaw.
Mr. Berman’s office sent Michael D. Cohen, the president’s former lawyer and fixer, to prison, and has been investigating Rudolph W. Giuliani, Mr. Trump’s current lawyer.
Mr. Berman’s appearance on Capitol Hill on Thursday was part of a broader inquiry by House Democrats into what they consider attempts by Mr. Barr to politicize the administration of justice.
Testifying privately before the House Judiciary Committee, Mr. Berman recounted being summoned with no warning in June to a meeting with Mr. Barr at the Pierre Hotel in New York. The attorney general asked him to step down and offered him prominent government posts if he would do so. Mr. Berman said he rebuffed Mr. Barr time and again during what he described as a tense, 45-minute discussion, telling him he would not resign and he did not want to be fired.
Mr. Barr repeatedly tried to change Mr. Berman’s mind, he testified, warning “that getting fired from my job would not be good for my résumé or future job prospects.”
“I told the attorney general that there were important investigations in the office that I wanted to see through to completion,” Mr. Berman told the committee members.
In prepared testimony released by the committee and under subsequent questioning, Mr. Berman declined to address Mr. Barr’s motive for his dismissal as the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, or to discuss the highly sensitive corruption investigations of members of Mr. Trump’s inner circle that his office oversaw.
But under questioning, Mr. Berman called the attorney general’s actions irregular and said they raised serious concerns in his mind. He told lawmakers that he believed that Mr. Barr’s plan to replace him with an outsider would “delay and disrupt” important cases under his watch. And when asked specifically by Republicans whether Mr. Barr had offered him a quid pro quo, he said he believed the description would fit an offer of a job in return for his resignation, according to three people familiar with the testimony who spoke on the condition of anonymity because it was private.
Mr. Barr’s critics have contended that the attorney general was acting based on Mr. Trump’s distaste for Mr. Berman and the sensitive inquiries involving the president that his office oversaw.
Mr. Berman’s office sent Michael D. Cohen, the president’s former lawyer and fixer, to prison, and has been investigating Rudolph W. Giuliani, Mr. Trump’s current lawyer.
Mr. Berman’s appearance on Capitol Hill on Thursday was part of a broader inquiry by House Democrats into what they consider attempts by Mr. Barr to politicize the administration of justice.