Despots' deals

[Southern District of New York leader Geoffrey Berman] has repeatedly pushed for actions on certain politically sensitive cases in opposition to Justice Department leadership, most notably the indictment in October of the state-owned Turkish bank, Halkbank.

According to a person familiar with the discussions, Barr personally spearheaded an effort last year to negotiate a settlement with the bank that would have allowed it to sidestep an indictment after Turkey's President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, pressed Trump in a bid to avoid charges. Berman, however, insisted on criminal prosecution, according to the people familiar with the matter.

[...]

Those types of actions have pacified Berman's staff in New York, who recall a message that Berman, a Trump appointee, delivered soon after taking his oath of office in 2018: "I want to be clear: Politics is not going to have a role in what we do. We're going to keep doing business as we always have." 

  CNN

Berman may be finding himself fired by tweet if he's not careful.

There's more in this article on Barr's position as Trump's political pusher:

In the past two weeks, the Justice Department has twice ordered US attorney's offices around the country to participate in what some of them perceive as politically charged actions, according to people familiar with the matter.

First, the department ordered prosecutors to hold news conferences, make statements and use social media to promote Barr's initiative to crack down on "sanctuary cities," according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. The Justice Department later retracted the demand, the person said. Still, at least two US attorneys wrote op-eds.

The department also instructed federal prosecutors to write op-eds to push for passage of pending legislation on fentanyl. More than a dozen US attorneys complied with publishing op-eds or written statements. The person said that historically prosecutors have been instructed to avoid commenting on pending legislation. 

Elsewhere, in Connecticut, Pittsburgh and St. Louis, the US attorney's offices have picked up investigations that are in line with what the President has wanted, looking into the origins of the investigation into the 2016 election, examining the Ukraine dealings of the son of Trump's political rival Joe Biden and reviewing the Michael Flynn prosecution.

[...]

The fears over potential political interference are particularly acute in New York, where prosecutors with the US attorney's office in Manhattan handle high-profile cases with a broad range of geopolitical implications, including terrorism prosecutions as well as investigations involving foreign governments and financial institutions, all of which can intersect with White House interests.

Manhattan prosecutors have also generated cases that are of concern to Trump personally, including the prosecution of Cohen and an investigation of the Trump Organization that ended without charges.

And for the past few months, prosecutors there have been investigating Rudy Giuliani, Trump's personal attorney, as well as Trump's inaugural committee.

Still, despite the alarm sounded in recent days, Southern District of New York prosecutors believe that their leader, Geoffrey Berman, has defended the office's relative autonomy, particularly since Barr's arrival, according to people familiar with the matter.

Barr, these people said, has attempted to micromanage certain cases, asking more questions and for more frequent updates than his predecessors on matters from Berman. 

[...]

New York federal prosecutors' independence -- so staunch, they joke, that their version of notifying Justice Department leadership about a consequential decision is to leave an after-hours voicemail on someone's desk phone the evening before they're about to take a significant action -- has been tested under the Trump administration.

And it will only get worse.

UPDATE: