NY US Attorney Shoots the Finger to Trump
There is one word that isn’t used much to describe the Trump administration, but a powerful one. I mean, we all use descriptors like criminal, corrupt, bankrupt, immoral. deplorable, cruel, and many other accurate terms. One word we don’t use much, but is appropriate, and that’s chickenshit. Trump, his goons, and sycophants are truly chickenshit, boasting and talking big on television and Twitter, but shrinking from facing the music when the time comes. Trump always fires people on Twitter or gets someone else to do the deed because he’s too weak to do it in person, like when he fired James Comey on Twitter. It happened again yesterday when Bill Barr stupidly tried to fire Geoffrey Berman, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York by press release. Barr lied in the press release saying that Berman had “resigned”. The problem is that Berman hadn’t resigned and responded to Barr’s chickenshitiness with a Screw You response that he most certainly had NOT resigned and had no intention of resigning. It was a rare golden moment in a vast landscape of darkness.
Since his appointment, Berman has drawn Trump’s ire by aggressively investigating his personal businesses, Giuliani, and Giuliani’s associates. He’s the one who indicted Michael Cohen drawing his guilty plea. Trump’s been wanting to get rid of him for months.
The hilarious part is that Barr can’t fire Berman because he was actually appointed by federal judges, not Trump, and confirmed by the Senate. To avoid oversight, Trump’s primary tactic is to make everyone in his cabinet and many leadership positions “acting”. Like every other tradition and rule, Trump has shattered norms of past presidents by violating these traditions, rules, and even federal laws in plain sight, defying anyone with actual authority to do anything. And, up until last night, it has worked like a charm. Trump fired Preet Bharara in 2017, and has since not nominated a replacement for him. Joon Kim took his place, but stepped down in 2018. Berman was appointed as acting US Attorney, but that was only good for 120 days. Trump never forwarded his appointment to the Senate, so the US District Court for the Southern District stepped in and appointed Berman to the post. In other words, Trump didn’t do his damn job, so the court did it for him. Since the court appointed Berman, he is defying Barr by refusing to step down until the Senate confirms a new US Attorney. I find this development and humiliation of Barr exceedingly entertaining.
Perhaps all this corruption is plain sight is now finally at least slowing? Maybe, but one characteristic is stubbornly hanging on and that is Trump’s Chickenshitiness.
Slightly OT, but related is this story [Rachel covered it and no one else seems to be paying attention. If you didn’t watch Rachel last night, please do.]
The Voice of America is one of the few American institutions which has maintained its good reputation over the past 3 1/2 years.
This week, the head of it, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist quietly resigned. She did not, to my knowledge, explain her action.
Almost immediately thereafter, Trump appointed a man to head VoA and its sister organizations. He claims that Steve Bannon is his mentor. Uh oh.
This man began firing the heads of all the organizations within the same cluster as VoA.
Trump made himself and a man who fawns on Bannon the heads of the News organization that represents the US around the world.
1Democracy dies in darkness and Trump just turned off the lights.
I’m glad someone has a spine. I bet US Attorneys are having a field day with this!
2Sweet! Good explanation of why he can’t be fired – T’s laziness.
3Of course Trump didn’t do the groundwork, on this or anything else. He has never done a full day’s work in his life.
4A detail that makes this story even more strange:
Berman and Rudy Giuliani were once partners in their law firm.
5If trump weren’t so lazy and his courtiers so incompetent, we’d be in real trouble.
6Long ago I was a sportswriter, and doing that led me to a deep understanding of the varieties of -shit as understood by baseball players.
There was chickenshit — petty beyond belief.
horseshit — worthless.
bullshit– phony.
dogshit — repellent.
Back them batshit was not in the lexicon.
Trump is the only person ever to qualify for all 4 of the ballplayers’ shitlists.
7Apparently this morning, Barr asked and Trumpf did officially remove and replace Berman. Very Nixonian and blatant obstruction of justice- in plain sight. Hope Berman testifies in front of the House ASAP and spills the obvious beans, which probably not only involves Trumpf and friends, but Barr corruption.
8If Trump were smart, he’d nominate someone else right away. Sneakier would be to appoint Berman for the post, get McConnell to push through confirming Berman – and then fire Berman the next day. (thus sidestepping the judicial appointment roadblock).
It looks as though Trump’s days of thumbing his nose at the rules are over – unless he wins in November. The two Roberts Court rulings on sex discrimination and DACA indicate that courts will be expected to follow the laws as written… and won’t try to find some excuse to uphold the administration’s position.
9There’s a court order naming German as the AG for SDNY, and the law says he’s in until Senate approves his replacement.
Does Trump think he can over rule a court order? Will he send in troops?
But this may keep SDNY from filing cases against Trump & his bootlickers. Those have to be filed 90 days before the election at latest.
10Just my theory, but seems like this had been planned by Barr and Trumpf to be done under the cover of the Tulsa rally, after hours Friday and today. There must be some serious shit they’re worried about coming soon. Bolton’s book just added to the evidence of corruption that’s been getting covered up by the duo. Now Barr is blaming Trump and of course Trumpf is saying it was all Barr. Playing dumb and dumber.
11Unfortunately, Mr. Berman seems to have changed his mind–or had it changed for him. He’s now, on the afternoon of the 20th, saying that he’ll quit immediately. I wonder who, or what, got to him?
12Wonder what’s the chance he got a call from Nancy Pelosi saying “Let’s talk” ?
13@thatotherjean It appears that what changed was he will be replaced by his deputy Audrey Strauss will take over, which is the normal succession plan. She will keep the job until a replacement is confirmed. And it looks like that won’t happen this year, since Lindsey Graham said the NY senators would get to blue slip the new US Attorney. So while Barr gets to save a little face by having Berman fired, he won’t get to put a Trump toady in the position. On-going investigations should be protected.
14Thank you, Bill F. On the whole, short of leaving Berman alone, that’s a good thing. At least it keeps Bill Barr’s fingers out of the pie. We don’t need any more Trump toadies at any level of government.
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