U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman Agrees to Leave Office Immediately

Johannes Eisele/AFP via Getty Images

It’s been a whirlwind 24 hours in the career of Geoffrey Berman, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. It was announced he was resigning, he said he wasn’t, Attorney General Bill Barr said that President Donald Trump was firing him, Trump denied firing him…and now, Berman has apparently had enough and is headed for the exit door.

Friday night, Barr issued a press release saying Berman was resigning. Shortly thereafter, Berman posted his own statement, saying, “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.”

Barr released another letter he wrote to Berman, saying he had asked Trump to fire him. “Unfortunately, with your statement of last night, you have chosen public spectacle over public service,” wrote Barr. “Because you have declared that you have no intention of resigning, I have asked the President to remove you as of today, and he has done so.”

When reporters asked Trump about Barr’s letter, he denied any knowledge or involvement. “That’s his department, not my department,” said the president. “I’m not involved.”

Saturday afternoon, less than two hours before Trump’s campaign kickoff rally in Tulsa was set to begin, Berman posted a new statement on his office website, in which Berman declared that he would be leaving his position, “effective immediately”:

In light of Attorney General Barr’s decision to respect the normal operation of law and have Deputy U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss become Acting U.S. Attorney, I will be leaving the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, effective immediately.  It has been the honor of a lifetime to serve as this District’s U.S. Attorney and a custodian of its proud legacy, but I could leave the District in no better hands than Audrey’s.  She is the smartest, most principled, and effective lawyer with whom I have ever had the privilege of working.  And I know that under her leadership, this Office’s unparalleled AUSAs, investigators, paralegals, and staff will continue to safeguard the Southern District’s enduring tradition of integrity and independence.

As Berman stated, the Deputy U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss will take over the S.D.N.Y. U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Berman likely found himself in the presidential cross-hairs because of his role at the top of the U.S. Attorney’s office located in Manhattan — with the jurisdiction that has included prosecuting one of Trump’s attorneys, conducting investigations into at least one other Trump attorney, and has pursued inquiries into the president’s own activities — so Berman’s praise for Strauss and his public declaration that he “know[s] that under her leadership, this Office’s unparalleled AUSAs, investigators, paralegals, and staff will continue to safeguard the Southern District’s enduring tradition of integrity and independence” can be viewed as one final parting shot at the White House that forced him out of his job.

This is a breaking story and may be updated.