Trump and Barr Discard Law, Morality and Honor

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

(Bloomberg Opinion) -- As the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, Geoffrey Berman sat atop one of the most powerful and independent perches in federal law enforcement. His office has long held dominion over the most significant white-collar crime cases in the country. It has taken on terrorists and organized crime. And sometimes it has investigated or prosecuted people close to the president of the United States.

Berman’s team took down President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, in 2018 on charges of tax evasion, bank fraud and campaign finance violations involving hush money payments to two women who said they had sexual encounters with the president. More recently, Berman has been investigating Rudolph Giuliani, a ubiquitous Trump lawyer and apologist, for possibly violating lobbying laws related to work he’s done in Ukraine. (That’s the same Ukraine that Trump tried to strong-arm into smearing former Vice President Joe Biden, leading to Trump’s impeachment; Berman’s office has already indicted two Giuliani associates, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, as part of that.)

Berman’s office has also been investigating whether Deutsche Bank AG complied with laws meant to stop money laundering. Deutsche Bank has longstanding financial ties to Trump and the family of his son-in-law, Jared Kushner. I’ve detailed Trump’s links to the bank previously, here and here. Berman has subpoenaed Trump’s inaugural committee as part of a probe into how the incoming president’s team spent more than $106 million raised for his inauguration. And John Bolton’s forthcoming book contends that Trump promised Turkey’s president, Recep Erdogan, that he would block investigations into a Turkish state-owned bank, Halkbank. You guessed it; Berman’s office is investigating Halkbank, too.

And so it came to pass that Attorney General William Barr fired Berman on Saturday afternoon, acting, he said, on Trump’s orders. Per the usual carnivalesque doings in Trumplandia, Berman was fired after refusing to resign after Barr announced, incorrectly, late Friday that Berman was “stepping down.”

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-barr-discard-law-morality-100015666.html

[soothsayer]

1. Kayleigh's story was that Clayton wanted to work in NY

And they wanted to keep him in government, so Berman had to go (even ahead of Clayton being confirmed)

[leftieNanner]

2. Clayton is so massively qualified to take the SDNY job!

He's never even prosecuted ONE CASE!

Great choice Bully Billy!