What Was Behind Barr’s Friday Night Massacre? . . . Ignorance A comment in my wanderings: Barr could not fire Berman who is a court appointed US Attorney. His foolish attempt to do so only makes him look even worse than what he was perceived to be. On Friday night, Barr claimed Berman had resigned. Sitting in the wings to replace Berman, a golfing buddy of Trump’s who is the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Jay Clayton would be the nominee to replace Berman. In the interim, the job would go to Craig Carpenito, the U.S. attorney for New Jersey. What surprised me was Berman replying he had not resigned and would not resign. As it came to light, Barr had no power to get rid of the court-appointed U.S. attorney, Barr was forced to backpedal
Topics:
run75441 considers the following as important: politics
This could be interesting, too:
Joel Eissenberg writes Undocumented labor: solutions, not scapegoating
Bill Haskell writes ACA Market Place Subsidies
Angry Bear writes U.S. Defense Spending
Bill Haskell writes Efforts to Curb News Media Free Speech
What Was Behind Barr’s Friday Night Massacre? . . . Ignorance
A comment in my wanderings:
Barr could not fire Berman who is a court appointed US Attorney. His foolish attempt to do so only makes him look even worse than what he was perceived to be.
On Friday night, Barr claimed Berman had resigned. Sitting in the wings to replace Berman, a golfing buddy of Trump’s who is the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Jay Clayton would be the nominee to replace Berman. In the interim, the job would go to Craig Carpenito, the U.S. attorney for New Jersey. What surprised me was Berman replying he had not resigned and would not resign. As it came to light, Barr had no power to get rid of the court-appointed U.S. attorney,
Barr was forced to backpedal and enlist the president’s help. On Saturday, Barr announced that Trump was firing Berman at his request.
Trump tried to sidestep the mess by telling reporters:
“I’m not involved,”
Trump and Barr were passing the bag of crap and blame back and forth with their comments.
So who is going to replace Berman? Berman’s deputy, Audrey Strauss, the first assistant U.S. attorney. Ms. Strauss is a veteran prosecutor, respected by her peers, thoroughly versed in the cases that threaten Trump, and not relevant to all of this . . . a Democrat who donated to Hillary Clinton in 2016.
What has transpired over the last few months is a president who conspired with an ideological DOJ AG to exercise greater authoritarian power over his government and who is stumbling into blunder after blunder destroying any illusion of control and with it the grounds for fearing him.
Grinning (me) . . . a masterful setup and follow through by Berman as he exits the door leaving behind a veteran prosecutor, respected by her peers, thoroughly versed in the cases threatening Trump, and who is (although irrelevant) a Democrat who donated to Hillary Clinton in 2016. Trump and Barr are stuck with Audrey Strauss. ?
A DA responder
“I wish Democrats would stop acting like they are winning in any of this. Yes, OBVIOUSLY, it is 100x better that Strauss will be taking over than Clayton. That should go without saying.
But let’s be blunt. Trump and Barr have shamelessly and unapologetically interfered in the operations of SDNY in order to protect Trump and Trumps’ cronies. And they got caught. And nothing will happen to them. And they will do it again in other venues.
Are the Dems to cheer because, in this particular instance, it appears that, at least temporarily, SDNY will continue to be run by a non-crooked prosecutor? This is the big win?”
A return response:
Sigh;
1. Berman is a Republican who donated to the 2016 Trump campaign and turned out to be an apolitical prosecutor. No Dem there!
2. As a District Court appointed US attorney, only the Assistant Prosecutor can replace him if Berman resigns or is fired by the Pres. No Dem politics there.
3. The Assistant Prosecutor Audrey Strauss just happens to be a Dem who donated to the Clinton campaign. I suspect Ms. Strauss is apolitical also and will prosecute Dems and well as Repubs.
4. The Republican apolitical Prosecutor Berman went after Republicans Cohen and Giuliani. I am sure he would take on a Dem fat cat too if the occasion arose.
5. I guess one could say their blundering around trying to can Berman is shameless interference. I would prefer to label the Repub DOJ AG Barr attempts a display of incompetence. Barr should have known he could not fire Berman. Repub against Repub.
6. Republican apolitical Berman and other not so apolitical Repubs such as Senator Graham appear to be satisfied his replacement is the apolitical assistant prosecutor.
7. I do not see much Dem involvement here.
8. It is ok if you wish to be blunt, I would rather remain as run75441.
What is captured here by George Packer at The Atlantic is some of the apolitical Repubs are pushing back on Barr and Trump, the display of ignorance on Barr’s part in not knowing he could not fire Berman, and the failure of much of the media to capture the malfeasance of Barr and Trump’s action and report it.