Trump fired New York prosecutor after standoff with Barr

Geoffrey Berman had earlier refused to step down until the Senate confirmed his successor

Attorney General William Barr said that he was ‘surprised and quite disappointed’ that the prosecutor had not quit his job

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US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey Berman. Photo: AFP

Published: 4:34am, 21 Jun 2020Updated: 8:32am, 21 Jun 2020

US Attorney General William Barr said on Saturday that President Donald Trump had fired Geoffrey Berman, the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan whose office is investigating Trump’s lawyer Rudolph Giuliani, after Berman publicly refused to step down from his post.

In a letter to Berman, Barr said he was “surprised and quite disappointed” by Berman’s statement late on Friday night in which he refused to quit his job, saying Berman had chosen “public spectacle over public service”.

“I have asked the president to remove you as of today, and he has done so,” Barr said, adding that the Deputy US Attorney Audrey Strauss for the Southern District on New York, will become the Acting US Attorney until a permanent replacement is installed.

A spokesman for the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Speaking to reporters as he left the White House for a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Trump said Berman’s firing was a matter for Barr and was not his “department”.

Berman’s termination marks another remarkable development in an escalating crisis at the Justice Department that started on Friday night, when Barr unexpectedly announced that Berman was stepping down and would be replaced by US Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton.