The firing of former Southern District of New York (SDNY) U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman has prompted 135 former SDNY prosecutors to sign an open letter against the actions of President Donald Trump and Attorney General William Barr.
Trump sought to remove the interim appointee Berman in favor of nominating SEC Chairman Jay Clayton for Senate confirmation.
The letter, as reported online by Corporate Crime Reporter, read:
"We, all former U.S. Attorneys and Assistant U.S. Attorneys for the Southern District of New York, deplore the recent actions of President Trump and Attorney General Barr in summarily firing U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman without cause.
"The actions of the President and the Attorney General are an attack on the concept that investigations should be conducted in a nonpartisan manner. They are politicizing an office that for more than 200 years has remained apolitical, and are undermining confidence in our criminal justice system.
"We call on our elected officials – Republicans and Democrats alike – to take all appropriate action to protect the administration of justice in the Southern District of New York and elsewhere from this kind of political interference."
The letter references fired National Security Adviser John Bolton's interview with ABC about a federal investigation into a Turkey state bank, which Trump allegedly broached with Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
"What Erdogan wanted was basically a settlement that would take the pressure off Halkbank,” Bolton told ABC's Martha Raddatz. "And the president said to Erdogan at one point — look, those prosecutors in New York are Obama people. Wait till I get my people in and then we’ll take care of this.
"And I thought to myself – and I'm a Department of Justice alumnus myself – I've never heard any president say anything like that. Ever."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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