Tag: Trump corruption

Acting U.S. attorney in New York expected to advance politically sensitive cases, safeguard office’s independence, colleagues say

Donald Trump had a bad week. He went to West Point to make himself look like a strong leader but raised doubts about his health when he struggled drinking water and descending a ramp. His first Supreme Court appointee wrote the opinion in a case upholding gay and transgender rights.

The court also struck down Trump’s effort to deport undocumented foreigners brought here as children. His former national security advisor wrote a book painting the world’s most powerful person as an ignorant sleazebag who was guilty of the impeachment charges and more.

Trump had to reschedule a Tulsa rally planned for Juneteenth, but he insisted on holding it the following day — risking lives in a state suffering a surge of the coronavirus. New polls showed him trailing Joe Biden by landslide margins. Continue reading.

James Comey: Geoffrey Berman upheld the finest tradition of the SDNY office

Washington Post logoIn 1906, reform-minded President Theodore Roosevelt wanted to change the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York. That office, which in its original form opened in 1789, was older than the Department of Justice itself. The court in which the office’s prosecutors worked was known as the “Mother Court,” because it began operating weeks before the U.S. Supreme Court. The Southern District of New York had been around since the founding of the country, and Roosevelt didn’t like what it had become — a place of political patronage, uninterested in troubling the powerful.

Roosevelt changed that with a single appointment, of Henry L. Stimson, a young, Harvard-educated Wall Street lawyer, who would go on to serve as secretary of state and secretary of war for four presidents of both parties, including a brand-new chief executive, Harry Truman, who needed to know about the atomic bomb. (“I think it is very important that I should have a talk with you as soon as possible on a highly secret matter,” Stimson wrote his new boss.)

As the new U.S. attorney, Stimson immediately fired people. They were all hacks, in his estimation, careerist or corrupt or both. He replaced them with recent graduates from top law schools, whom he wanted only for a few years, after which they would go work for fancy law firms and be replaced by other idealistic and talented young lawyers. Continue reading.

Barr says US attorney who refused to resign is now fired — but this is all far from over

AlterNet logoOn Friday night, Attorney General William Barr issued a statement saying that the U. S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Geoffry Berman, had resigned. That was a lie. Not only had Berman not resigned, he had told Barr repeatedly that he would not resign, and had turned down other roles at the Department of Justice. So, about an hour after Barr’s statement, Berman issued a statement of his own, telling Barr to stuff it. Actually, Berman stated that he had been “appointed by the Judges of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York” and that he would only step down “when a presidentially appointed nominee is confirmed by the Senate.” Berman is in the middle of a number of highly sensitive investigations, including an ongoing investigation of Donald Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani and his associates in Trump’s Ukraine scandal. So his removal clearly signals that Barr is, once again, placing Trump’s desires far ahead of such arcane ideas as justice, or the nation.

On Saturday afternoon, Barr produced a new statement. He’s given up the pretense that Berman has resigned. Instead Barr says, “I have asked the president to remove you as of today, and he has done so.” According to Barr, this makes assistant U. S. Attorney Audrey Strauss the new acting U. S. Attorney, but considering Barr’s knowledge and application of the law, odds are he’s simply lying again. Hilariously, Barr claims there’s no danger of there being an issue with ongoing cases because … the inspector general will see to that. As everyone knows, Trump and Barr just respect the hell out of inspectors general.

Trump ousts Manhattan U.S. attorney who investigated president’s associates

Washington Post logoAttorney General William P. Barr said Saturday that President Trump had fired the top federal prosecutor in New York, ending an unprecedented standoff between Barr and U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman, who had resisted being removed from his post.

Barr informed Berman of the president’s move in a sharply worded letter, explaining that Berman’s deputy, Audrey Strauss, will serve as the acting U.S. attorney in Manhattan until the Senate can confirm a permanent replacement. Under Berman, the office managed a number of sensitive investigations involving people close to Trump, including his personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani.

Barr wrote that he had hoped for Berman’s “cooperation to facilitate a smooth transition” in the office as Trump nominates the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Jay Clayton, to take over the job. Instead, the attorney general wrote, Berman had chosen “public spectacle.” Continue reading.

Nadler: House Judiciary Committee will open investigation into Berman firing

The Hill logoHouse Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) announced Saturday that the committee will immediately open an investigation into the Trump administration’s decision to fire Manhattan U.S. attorney Geoff Berman. 

“The House Judiciary Committee will immediately open an investigation into this incident, as part of our broader investigation into Barr’s unacceptable politicization of the Department of Justice,” Nadler said in a statement.

“On Wednesday, the Committee will hear from two whistleblowers who will explain why Barr’s attempt to fire Mr. Berman is part of a larger, ongoing, and wholly unacceptable pattern of conduct. If the President removes Mr. Berman, then we will take additional steps to secure his testimony as well.” Continue reading.

Push to oust Manhattan attorney sparks fresh crisis for DOJ

The Hill logoThe Justice Department’s push to oust a key U.S. attorney who spearheaded multiple probes involving associates of President Trump has spurred a new crisis for the administration.

The chaotic and fast-moving situation began to unfold in public view on Friday night when Attorney General William Barr abruptly announced that Geoffrey Berman would be “stepping down” as the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan.

That was met with an extraordinary statement released roughly an hour later by Berman, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, in which he stated, “I have not resigned, and have no intention of resigning, my position,” adding that his office’s investigations would continue. Continue reading.

 

Unredacted Mueller report reveals Trump may have lied to the special counsel

AlterNet logoOn Friday night, the Justice Department released a new version of former Special Counsel Mueller’s report with newly unredacted sections about Roger Stone and WikiLeaks.

In one section of the newly released information, Mueller weighed the possibility President Donald Trump had lied to him in his written answers to a series of questions. Any such lies would be potential criminal acts.

Trump appears to have lied when he said:

I have no recollection of being told that WikiLeaks possessed or might possess emails related to John Podesta before the release of Mr. Podesta’s emails was reported by the media. Likewise, I have no recollection of being told that Roger Stone, anyone acting as an intermediary for Roger Stone, or anyone associated with my campaign had communicated with WikiLeaks on October 7, 2016.

Trump administration in standoff with Manhattan U.S. attorney who investigated the president’s associates

Washington Post logoThe Trump administration announced late Friday that Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman, who has overseen a number of investigations involving the president and his political campaign, will be leaving that job, though Berman fired back that he had not resigned and intends to stay in the job to ensure the cases continue unimpeded.

The surreal standoff marks the latest battle over the administration’s management of the Justice Department. Democrats have decried what they charge has been the politicization of the agency under President Trump and his attorney general, William P. Barr.

Barr announced the personnel change in a statement, saying the president plans to nominate the current chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Jay Clayton, for the job. Continue reading.

Trump Cronies Got Stimulus Loans While Black-Owned Businesses Went Under

According to a report released last week, a huge number of the nation’s Black-owned businesses have shuttered due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Economic stimulus funds that were intended to keep minority-owned small businesses alive did not get to them in time or at all, leaving their owners with no other options.

Some 440,000 of the country’s roughly one million Black-owned companies have closed for good since the start of February, CBS News reported on Friday. The report noted that the vast majority of those companies that sought emergency relief funding through the federal Paycheck Protection Program were initially rejected — one analysis found that 95% of black-owned business were excluded.

When Donald Trump signed the $6.2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act in March, he promised that its $350 billion Paycheck Protection Program and other provisions would “keep our small businesses strong and our big businesses strong. And that’s keeping our country strong and our jobs strong.” Continue reading.

Ousted State Department watchdog says top officials lobbied him not to probe Saudi arms deal

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo renewed his defense of the firing of the inspector general, saying he wished he had asked the president to act earlier.

WASHINGTON — The former State Department inspector general fired by President Donald Trump told lawmakers that two top officials tried to discourage his investigation into a U.S. arms sale to Saudi Arabia, according to congressional testimony released Wednesday.

The ousted inspector general, Steve Linick, said Under Secretary of State for Management Brian Bulatao told him “that we shouldn’t be doing the work because it was a policy matter not within the IG’s jurisdiction,” according to a transcript of his June 3 testimony.

The State Department’s acting legal advisor, Marik String, also questioned the probe, arguing it was outside the scope of the inspector general and purely a policy matter, Linick said.