In other interesting news: Berman is testifying today

“The Attorney General said that if I did not resign from my position I would be fired,” [SDNY Attorney Geoffrey Berman] said in his statement, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post. “He added that getting fired from my job would not be good for my resume or future job prospects. I told him that while I did not want to get fired, I would not resign.”

Barr urged Berman to step aside, saying that if he did not, he would be fired, according to the statement.

[...]

Barr began by saying he “wanted to make a change in the Southern District of New York,” Berman wrote.

[...]

Berman told Barr he “loved” his job and asked the attorney general if he were “in any way dissatisfied” with his performance. Barr said he was not and that the move was “solely prompted by Jay Clayton’s desire to move back to New York” and the “administration’s desire to keep him on the team.”

And there was no other spot for him on the team, huh?

Berman told Barr he knew and liked Clayton but that “he was an unqualified choice.”

He said he was not interested in the civil division job or in resigning, and that he would leave when a nominee was confirmed. He told Barr that there were important investigations he wanted to see through to completion.

Which was no doubt exactly Barr's problem.

Berman said he was signaling to Barr “that I was not going to resign so he could disregard normal procedure and appoint someone from outside the Southern District” instead of his deputy.

During the meeting Barr asked Berman for his cellphone number so that Barr could call him later that day. Berman gave him his personal cell number and told him that his position “would not change this afternoon or in the future.”

After the meeting, Berman called senior aides and attorneys who might represent him if he were fired. He said he wanted to be ready to challenge the firing on the grounds that he was appointed by the judges of the Southern District and therefore could not be fired by the attorney general or the president.

[...]

Berman, 60, a lifelong Republican who had volunteered on the Trump transition team, was appointed U.S. attorney on an interim basis by then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions in January 2018. Trump personally interviewed Berman, who had been an assistant U.S. attorney in Manhattan from 1990 to 1994. When 120 days had passed without the president nominating a permanent U.S. attorney, the judges of the Southern District stepped in and appointed Berman to the job, pursuant to federal law.

[...]

Later that evening he had a brief conversation with Barr. He told Barr he wanted until Monday to discuss the situation with his executive staff. At that point Barr offered him the SEC chairman position, Berman demurred and repeated that he wanted to have a final conversation on Monday.

“This is about you,” Barr said. Replied Berman: “It’s about the office.”

That was the last time the two men spoke.

At 9:15 p.m. that Friday, in a surprise move, Barr announced that Berman was stepping down; that Trump planned to nominate Clayton, to take his place; and that in the interim Trump would appoint the U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey, Craig Carpenito, to oversee the New York office in an acting capacity.

Appointing Carpenito as acting U.S. attorney “would have been unprecedented, unnecessary and unexplained,” Berman wrote.

About two hours later, Berman fired back, saying he had not resigned and intended to stay in his job until a nominee was confirmed.

[...]

At about 3:30 p.m., Barr released a letter he had sent to Berman notifying him that he had been fired by the president.

In what Berman called a “critical concession,” Barr also stated that Berman’s deputy, Audrey Strauss, and not Carpenito, would serve as acting U.S. attorney until a successor could be confirmed.

“With that concession and having full confidence that Audrey would continue the important work of the office, I decided to step down and not litigate my removal,” he wrote.

[...]

Berman’s office brought a number of high-profile cases that involved Trump associates, including convicting the president’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen of tax evasion, campaign finance violations and lying to Congress. Last October, Southern District prosecutors charged two Trump and Rudolph W. Giuliani associates, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, with scheming to funnel foreign money to U.S. politicians while trying to influence U.S.-Ukraine relations.

[...]

Strauss, colleagues say, possesses the experience and acumen to guide the office through turbulent times while upholding its long tradition of independence.

A registered Democrat, she was an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District from 1976 to 1983. While there, she bested defense attorney and political fixer Roy Cohn, a man Trump has called a mentor, in his attempt to overturn convictions of two Mafia members.

I think we can call that a big blow-up in Barr's fat face then.

The administration’s critics have said they believe that Trump wanted him gone because Berman’s prosecutors had been investigating the president’s allies, including Trump’s personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani.

Thursday’s closed-door session is part of the committee’s inquiry into Barr’s management of the Justice Department and what Democrats deem his “unprecedented politicization” of the historically apolitical agency. Barr, who has been criticized for intervening in cases of personal consequence to the president, is due to testify publicly before committee at the end of July.

  WaPo

Any bets he won't? Besides mine, that is.

Committee Republicans dismissed the testimony of Berman, a lifelong Republican and party donor. “Berman provided no testimony today that any case involving the president or any other human being was at all a part of the decision to move him out of the Southern District,” said Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.)

Hmmm. Matt. We're talking about Barr. Why do you bring up Trump? Hm?

Trump has nominated Jay Clayton, the current head of the SEC, to be the next U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York although he has no experience as a federal prosecutor — a point Berman made to Barr.

Senate Republicans have indicated they are unlikely to move ahead on the nomination.

Damn brave of 'em.

Check out Laura Rozen's Twitter thread on it here.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Impeach Bill Barr.