Geoffrey Berman, the former acting US Attorney for the Southern District of New York who stepped down last month, noted in his House Judiciary testimony that he found Attorney General Bill Barr’s request for his resignation so he could appoint another US Attorney to run SDNY–while still running another district–to be “unprecedented, unnecessary and unexplained.”
Berman ultimately decided to step aside when the Justice Department announced his deputy, Audrey Strauss, would be replacing him, allowing for a continuity in leadership and investigation within the District.
“Firing me and then bypassing my deputy Audrey Strauss to place [Craig Carpenito, the US Attorney for the District of New Jersey] in charge of the office would have caused significant disruption and delay in the investigations the office was handling,” Berman stated.
According to Berman, Barr stated that Carpenito would handle both SDNY and New Jersey, to which Berman said, “Southern District of New York is not a part time job.”
The committee counsel for republicans, Steve Castor, repeatedly pushed Berman to acknowledge that he was not claiming Barr was explicitly breaking any laws. Berman, however, countered that because Berman was assigned by the judges of the Southern District, he could only be replaced by a Senate-confirmed appointee.
Castor brought up a number of high-profile cases SDNY was investigating, but Berman refused to comment on any case, instead acknowledging that Barr didn’t mention any specific case in seeking Berman to step down.
Apparently, Castor was trying to demonstrate that Barr was not attempting to remove Berman because Berman wasn’t tanking cases Barr wanted buried. Berman, however, noted that technically Barr did offer a quid pro quo for Berman’s resignation: that being, the position as head of the DoJ Civil Division or as the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
At one point, Florida Man Matt Gaetz interjected himself into the questioning by Castor. Berman had stated that traditionally, “an outsider” was never brought in to serve as the US Attorney in SDNY, meaning that the line of succession within SDNY had been someone who was familiar with the environment and the investigations. That’s why Berman insisted his deputy take over the post.
“So any person other than the one person you is your handpicked deputy is an outsider, pursuant to your definition?” Gaetz pontificated. “There is only one person who’s an insider, every other human the Planet Earth is an outsider.
“Why did you fear outsiders coming into that office and bypassing the first assistant [sic]?” Gaetz badgered. “And why did you fear outsiders? What was the harm they were going to do, in your mind?”
Slightly puzzled by Gaetz’s rampage, Berman repeated, “The problem with someone coming in as acting {US Attorney] and bypassing the normal process of the deputy, the problem with that, it would inevitably cause disruption and delay in the ongoing investigations.”
“Which ongoing investigations were disrupted following your departure?” Gaetz persisted.
“There was not a single investigation that was disrupted following my departure,” Berman quietly explained, “because I only stepped down once I knew that Audrey Strauss, the Deputy United State Attorney, would be in charge.”