After Predicting that Barr Might Allow Trump to Halt an Investigation by Firing U.S. Attorney, Blumenthal Demands AG Explain Berman Removal

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, wrote Attorney General William Barr today demanding an explanation for the removal of former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Geoffrey Berman. Under questioning by Blumenthal during his nomination hearing in January 2019, Barr testified, “I would not stand by and allow a U.S. attorney to be fired for the purpose of stopping an investigation.”

“I write today to demand that you explain, in writing, how your recent actions comport with your previous sworn testimony to the Committee and why Mr. Berman was fired if, in fact, it was not to stop an investigation into President Trump,” Blumenthal wrote.

Blumenthal detailed several material inconsistencies surrounding the removal Mr. Berman, then writing, “You have so far failed to provide any explanation for these discrepancies. That leaves us with only one conclusion: that at the behest of President Trump, you have wielded the immense power of the Department of Justice to shutter or slow investigations to serve his political interests and not the interests of justice. These actions are antithetical to the integrity and independence of the Department of Justice, and, contemptibly, standard practice under this Administration and under your tenure as Attorney General.”

The full text of Blumenthal’s letter is copied below.

June 23, 2020

The Honorable William P. Barr

Attorney General of the United States

Department of Justice

950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington, D.C. 20530

Dear Attorney General Barr:

On January 15, 2019, at your nomination hearing to be Attorney General of the United States, I asked, “Would you allow the President to fire a United States attorney and thereby stop an investigation?” Under oath, you answered, “I would not stand by and allow a U.S. attorney to be fired for the purpose of stopping an investigation.”[1] Late Friday night, on June 19, 2020, you announced the removal of Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. His office had named President Trump as an unindicted co-conspirator in the criminal prosecution of his former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, subpoenaed President Trump’s Inaugural Committee, and was reportedly investigating the corrupt business dealings of the President’s current personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. In firing a United States Attorney who was conducting these and possibly other significant investigations into President Trump, you have apparently committed the precise unlawful act that you swore to me you would never do.

I write today to demand that you explain, in writing, how your recent actions comport with your previous sworn testimony to the Committee and why Mr. Berman was fired if, in fact, it was not to stop an investigation into President Trump.

The decision to remove Mr. Berman is only the latest instance of President Trump interfering in the Department of Justice for brazenly political purposes. It is also only the latest instance in which you have aided and abetted that recurrent scheme.

In February, hours after President Trump criticized the recommended sentence sought by career prosecutors in the Roger Stone matter, including witness tampering and obstruction of Congress, Department leadership intervened to overrule that recommendation. When the President, in May, indicated that he might pardon Michael Flynn, who had pled guilty to lying to federal investigators and repeatedly admitted his guilt in court, the Department moved to drop the charges. That unprecedented decision has since been characterized as “highly irregular conduct to benefit a political ally of the President.”[2] And now, when the President purportedly removed Geoffrey Berman, whose office named President Trump as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Michael Cohen matter[3] and was overseeing the ongoing investigation in Rudy Giuliani’s business dealings,[4] you failed to stand by him as you swore that you would. Instead, and in your own words, you “asked the President to remove [him].”[5]

There are numerous and material inconsistencies surrounding the removal of Mr. Berman that you have an obligation to explain to not just the Committee, but also to the American public. You first represented that Mr. Berman had voluntarily stepped down,[6] which he promptly repudiated.[7] In a revised statement on Saturday, you then said that you asked the President to remove Mr. Berman and that he did so.[8] President Trump has said since that he was “not involved” in the decision.[9]

You have so far failed to provide any explanation for these discrepancies. That leaves us with only one conclusion: that at the behest of President Trump, you have wielded the immense power of the Department of Justice to shutter or slow investigations to serve his political interests and not the interests of justice. These actions are antithetical to the integrity and independence of the Department of Justice, and, contemptibly, standard practice under this Administration and under your tenure as Attorney General.

While you may not have stood with Mr. Berman, you would do well to read the statement he released late Friday evening, prior to his subsequent removal. He wrote, “[O]ur investigations will move forward without delay or interruption. I cherish every day that I work with the men and women of this Office to pursue justice without fear or favor – and intend to ensure that this Office’s important cases continue unimpeded.”[10] I hope that the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York – and career federal prosecutors across the nation – heed his message. The integrity and independence of American justice are at stake.

To that end, I request that you answer for these inconsistencies and for removing Mr. Berman in writing no later than June 30, 2020.

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