House Judiciary Committee chair Jerry Nadler (D-NY) announced late Friday night that he will invite U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoff Berman to testify after Attorney General Bill Barr abruptly attempted to fire Berman.
âUntil then, our investigations will move forward without delay or interruption.â
This sentence right here. As subtle as a bullhorn.
I suspect if Berman is still running SDNY, as it appears he will be, then all heâll tell Nadlerâs Committee is he canât speak on ongoing investigations. Might be a letdown until he produces some indictments.
ETA: Oh, and this guy, Clayton? He better hold on to his day job.
I seriously doubt that Nadler will be asking about current investigations.
There are other fish to fry here.
Hard to say what the future will bring but to this point it just doesnât get any better than this.
As I noted in the other thread last night, this is going to get hot quickly. Berman should be âinvitedâ to testify, but should be sent a subpoena so he can say he has to go.
Fridayâs are always interesting as SS Trump sinksâŚ.
Bill Barr put out a press release saying that the US Attorney (called âUSAâ for short) for the SD of New York, Geoffrey Berman, had âresignedâ and was would be temporarily replaced by the US Attorney for the D of New Jersey, and then by the head of the SEC. Both must immediately refuse to take the position, if not they need to be criminally investigated with Barr come 2021.
this all stinks to high hell. Berman was appointed by Jeff Sessions (after Trump interviewed him) but has actually shown himself to be very independent, and has:
Likely other stuff.
So lots of reasons for Trump to want him gone.
So what is going on? Where will this all end up?
It appears to me that Barr tried to bribe Berman to leave by offering him head of the civil division at main doj. (the second highest job in the DOJ, and what would be considered in a normal administration a huge step up in job). That itself stinks, likes like bribery for obstruction of justice.
Berman said no. Barr then put out his press release lying that Berman had resigned. Barr must have thought Berman would go quietly. But Berman came back w/ i the hour with a statement saying he was court appointed and would not leave. So this was something Berman was expecting, an eventuality that he had prepared for. WHY?
I am guessing something is going to break from the SD of N.Y. someone is about to get indicted. That forced Barrâs hand, and he tried a (so far unsuccessful) power play.
Berman is clearly set on being the hero, looking beyond trump, and he has no reason to keep quite at this point. Berman can fight Trump and be the John Dean of his era, and my guess is that he has some good dirt on Trump or his associates, which is why he is not leaving.
So hang on tight. As I have been saying for a while, Trump is going down, but he is going to do all kind of really crazy shit before the Secrete Service drag him out of the white house on January 20, 2021.
And a good twitter feed that addressed some of this from a well know UT law professor: https://twitter.com/steve_vladeck?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^author
P.s. (added later) I also wanted to comment on how DOJ has not said anything since last night. The line coming now appears to be that Berman was not âfiredâ. That they donât have a plan or a statement out, and that Berman just showed up for work this morning (Saturday) and told the press he had nothing beyond his statement, he was just going to work, says a lot.
This really supports the argument that Barr did this in a hurry, w/o thinking it through. It was a rushed power play. Barr is now trying to figure out what to do next. He more and more (see his coordinating tear gassing protestors which is NOT HIS JOB) just acting like a power made out of control guy who thinks he can get away with it. And given that (for reasons that are not explained, and may or may not be related) three top people in DOJ have resigned recently, I doubt he is getting much support within DOJ, and is probably trying to deal with this on his own or in a conspiracy with Trump and Chippellone (White House Counsel/Criminal)
Very interesting thread from Harry Litman gaming this out. Basically, he says we have a couple of conflicting statutes that need to be addressed by the courts. The key is whether Berman is able to stay at SDNY while the case wends its way through the courts. If so, as Litman believes, Trump is in trouble.
https://twitter.com/harrylitman/status/1274341980319805440?s=21
Was this in the NYT in 2017? Iâm asking because of the last part where they state: âPresident Trump, whose administration has been sloe to fill many posts in the executive and judicial branches.â McConnell has been trying to fill has many vacancies in the federal courts with as many unqualified candidates as he can ram through.
They can ask whom is being investigated, in closed session, but not the details of said investigations, unless I misunderstand something.
I am so very proud to be an American. Maya Wileyâs reaction was my own.
Oh Its Rudy.
But this time is different for two important reasons. First, Berman has been investigating Rudy Giuliani for months. At the very least, Giuliani was indisputably carrying out U.S. foreign policy in Ukraine by negotiating with Unkrainian President Volodymr Zelensky. In particular, he was trying to get Zelensky to agree to announce that he was investigating Hunter Biden. The problem is that while Trump undoubtedly told Giuliani to do this, Trump never gave him an official role, so he was negotiating with a foreign government as a private citizen, which violates the Logan Act. If Trump had appointed Giuliani as a special envoy for Ukrainian affairs, then everything would have been fine, but he didnât.
Now, it is perfectly obvious that Trump and Barr want to kill the investigation of Giuliani. You can bet your bottom dollar that if Barack Obamaâs AG had tried to fire a federal prosecutor who was investigating a friend of Obamaâs, every Republican in the Senate would be demanding his head on a pike. So far, no word from Senate Republicans on this matter. Donât hold your breath.
Yep. Akin to, âIf youâre going to try to obstruct, BillâŚâ
Even if Barr canât get Berman out, can Barr still be charged with trying to obstruct justice?
On the other side of the transaction, Jay Clayton, the intended replacement, has no experience as a prosecutor. He is a âwell-connected Wall Street lawyer who represented and advised a number of major companies, including Goldman Sachs, Barclays, Deutsche Bank and UBS,â so he would be a firewall against any investigation into Trumpâs money laundering and other suspected financial crimes.
How many times does it take for maggoted MAGAs to stop supporting the most corrupt AND callous POTUS? Isnât 19k+ lies enough? What about the more than 118k+ Covid deaths?
How many times does it take for Barr to be caught lying in material ways/big lies before he can be disbarred? Barr lied about Bergmanâs ousting AND Mueller Report!
Buzzfeed has new unredacted portions of Mueller Report AND it seems that Barr redacted the part which shows that Trump lied under written testimonyâŚDid Trump lie under oath/perjury here? Asking Congress about this!
In written testimony to Muellerâs team in November 2018, Trump denied being aware of any communications between Stone, Manafort, Gates, or Donald Trump Jr and WikiLeaks or Assange. Yet according to the newly public portions of the Special Counselâs report, âTrump knew that Manafort and Gates had asked Stone to find out what other damaging information about Clinton WikiLeaks possessed, and that Stoneâs claimed connection to WikiLeaks was common knowledge within the Campaign."
When is too much corruption and lies too much for the maggoted MAGAs?
OT: Unfortunately, what happens in Vegas wonât stay in Vegas. Heck of a job, mayor. Who could have ever predicted this?
Outstanding Post. Thank you.
I am hoping that Berman is the exception that proves the rule which states that there are no honest Republicans today
You seem to be under the impression that the maggoted MAGAs, as you call them, understand what is going on, on a deeper level than Trump is pissing off those who arenât like us. The real question should be the conservative pundits (outside of Fox) think that this is one step over the line?
