Barr fires US attorney from Southern District of New York

Washington Examiner:
Attorney General William Barr announced that President Trump had removed Geoffrey Berman, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, following a standoff over the Justice Department’s removal of the federal prosecutor.
“Unfortunately, with your statement of last night, you have chosen public spectacle over public service,” Barr said in a one-page letter on Saturday. “Because you have declared that you have no intention of resigning, I have asked the President to remove you as of today, and he has done so.”
Trump briefly spoke with reporters Saturday afternoon, saying “I’m not involved” in the Berman firing, seeming to distance himself.
"That's all up to the Attorney General, Attorney General Barr is working on that," Trump said. "That's his department, not my department... So that's really up to him."
...
Barr pushed back against Berman on Saturday, telling him that “your statement also wrongly implies that your continued tenure in the office is necessary to ensure that cases now pending in the Southern District of New York are handled appropriately” and called this an “obviously false” implication.

“I fully expect that the office will continue to handle all cases in the normal course and pursuant to the Department’s applicable standards, policies, and guidance,” Barr said. “Going forward, if any actions or decisions are taken that office supervisors conclude are improper interference with a case, that information should be provided immediately to Michael Horowitz, the Department of Justice's Inspector General, whom I am authorizing to review any such claim."

Barr claimed to be “surprised and quite disappointed” by Berman’s statement, saying that “as we discussed” the attorney general wanted to opportunity to to nominate Jay Clayton, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, to take Berman's place and was hoping for Berman’s “cooperation to facilitate a smooth transition.” The attorney general said that deputy U.S. attorney Audrey Strauss would become the acting U.S. attorney until Berman’s successor is in place.
...
I am not sure what Berman thought would happen when he refused a generous offer from the AG of another position.  This particular office does seem to have a cadre of TDS. 

BTW, Congress passed a law during the Carter administration giving the President the right to fire a US Attorney who was court-appointed.

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