US attorney investigating Trump lawyer refuses to leave after Justice Department tries to fire him: ‘Our investigations will move forward’

A top US federal prosecutor investigating Donald Trump‘s personal lawyer is refusing to step down after William Barr, the attorney general, attempted to fire him.

The extraordinary standoff between Geoffrey Berman, the US Attorney in Manhattan, and the Trump administration is just the latest in a series of actions by Mr Barr that critics say are attempts to benefit the US president politically.

Late on Friday, Mr Barr in a surprise announcement said Mr Berman was stepping down and that he would nominate the Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Jay Clayton to fill the vacancy.

Mr Berman, who leads a powerful office known for prosecuting high-profile terrorism cases, Wall Street financial crimes and government corruption, said he first learned of the move from Mr Barr’s press release and would not go quietly.

“I have not resigned, and have no intention of resigning my position,” Mr Berman said in a statement released on Twitter.

“I will step down when a presidentially appointed nominee is confirmed by the Senate. Until then, our investigations will move forward without delay or interruption.”

A Justice Department official, asked about Mr Berman’s refusal to leave the post until a successor is confirmed, told Reuters the timeline remains the same as Mr Barr laid out in announcing the replacement.

The move to fire Mr Berman comes as Mr Trump seeks to purge officials perceived as not fully supporting him. In recent weeks he has fired a series of agency watchdogs, including one who played a key role in his impeachment earlier this year.

Since being appointed in January 2018, Mr Berman has not shied from taking on figures in Mr Trump’s orbit. His office oversaw the prosecution of Michael Cohen, Mr Trump’s former personal lawyer, indicted two associates of Rudy Giuliani, Mr Trump’s current lawyer, and launched a probe into Mr Giuliani in connection with his efforts to dig up dirt on Mr Trump’s political adversaries in Ukraine.

Prosecutors have not accused Mr Giuliani of wrongdoing.

Mr Berman’s attempted dismissal came as the Justice Department asks a federal court to block publication of a book by former national security adviser John Bolton, whose claims include an allegation Mr Trump tried to interfere with a probe overseen by Mr Berman’s office.

“This late Friday night dismissal reeks of potential corruption of the legal process,” senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the top Democrat in the US Senate, wrote on Twitter. “What is angering President Trump? A previous action by this US Attorney or one that is ongoing?”

House Judiciary Committee chairman Jerrold Nadler, also a Democrat, said he intends to invite Mr Berman to testify.

Mr Berman replaced Preet Bharara, who was himself fired as US Attorney in early 2017 soon after Mr Trump became president. Mr Bharara, an outspoken critic of the president, said the timing of the push to replace his successor was strange.

“Why does a president get rid of his own hand-picked US Attorney in SDNY on a Friday night, less than 5 months before the election?” Mr Bharara wrote on Twitter, referring to the upcoming US presidential election in November.

While the Senate considers Clayton’s nomination, Mr Trump has appointed Craig Carpenito, the US Attorney for the District of New Jersey, as the acting US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Mr Barr said in his statement.

But it was not clear whether Mr Barr can force Mr Berman out.

Mr Berman was never confirmed by the Senate, the usual process for appointing US Attorneys, and was instead appointed by the judges of the district in accordance with a US law that says he can serve until the vacancy is filled.

Steve Vladeck, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin School of Law, said the vacancy needs to be filled by someone who is Senate-confirmed or chosen by a judge. Mr Carpenito, Mr Vladeck wrote on Twitter, is neither of those. But, Mr Vladeck also cited a conflicting law that gives the president the authority to remove US Attorneys.

Before Mr Clayton joined the SEC, he was a lawyer specialising in mergers and acquisitions at Sullivan & Cromwell. He is seen as a bipartisan consensus-builder for his time leading the SEC.

The Justice Department official said Mr Clayton, who had been planning to leave the administration and return to New York, “expressed interest” in the US Attorney role in New York, and Mr Barr “thought it was a good idea”.

Mr Barr’s announcement comes less than a week before Mr Nadler’s committee is set to hold a hearing in which Justice Department officials are set to testify about political interference at the department.

Earlier this year, Mr Barr intervened to scale back the sentencing recommendation for longtime Trump ally Roger Stone, prompting all four career prosecutors to withdraw from the case in protest.

Additional reporting by Reuters