Inside Geoffrey Berman’s closed-door testimony

Geoffrey Berman, the former top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, was expected to say in closed-door testimony today that Attorney General Bill Barr repeatedly urged him to take another job, warned him that getting fired would not be good for his resume or job prospects and steered him toward a high-level Justice Department post in DC.

Driving the news: Axios has obtained a copy of Berman’s opening statement for his closed-door hearing before the House Judiciary Committee.

• In the statement, Berman gives a detailed account of the conversations he had with Barr in the days and hours leading up to President Trump firing him from his post as the U.S. attorney for the powerful Southern District of New York.
• The document also says that Barr told Berman that he should take a different job, running the Justice Department’s Civil Division, because “the role would be a good resume builder” and would help him “create a book of business” once he returned to the private sector. Continue reading.