Lawless

 Further evidence that Trump doesn't bother with rules and laws, and considers the Constitution, like the Declaration of Independence, as only a paper he might like to show off in the White House (and eventually take home with him).

Aaaaaaaaaaand...another failure

Oooops.

And another one

Trump has fired Geoffrey Berman as the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, sources familiar with the decision told ABC News.

The surprise move comes two years into a tenure that included the prosecution of Michael Cohen, Jeffrey Epstein and two associates of Rudy Giuliani.

The decision was delivered personally by U.S. Attorney General William Barr, who a Justice Department official told ABC News offered Berman other positions, including head of the Civil Division at Main Justice.

He declined the offer and was subsequently fired and Craig Carpenito, the U.S. attorney in New Jersey, was named to lead the office on an interim basis.

  Yahoo

Berman followed Preet Bharara, who was fired at the beginning of Trump's reign when Bharara refused to pledge allegiance to Trump.

"I learned in a press release from the Attorney General tonight that I was 'stepping down' as United States Attorney," [Berman] said. "I have not resigned, and have no intention of resigning, my position, to which I was appointed by the Judges of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. I will step down when a presidentially appointed nominee is confirmed by the Senate."

"Until then, our investigations will move forward without delay or interruption," he continued.

[...]

Trump intends to nominate Jay Clayton of the Securities and Exchange Commission to replace Berman.

Former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti wondered if the abrupt personnel change might be to protect Rudy Giuliani.

[...]

“Given Trump’s history, would anyone be surprised if he fired Berman to influence or quash the investigation of Giuliani?

[...]

“Be concerned,” former DOJ official David Laufman warned his Twitter followers. “Be very concerned.”

  Raw Story

And the Senate is controlled by Republican Trump lackies.  He won't have a problem there.  It's just as important in November to flip the Senate as it is to remove Trump.

SDNY has been handling an investigation into the Trump Organization, the pay-off to Stormy Daniels, Trump's hidden inaugural donors, and Deutsche Bank's sketchy loans to Trump.

“The SDNY presents the greatest ongoing legal threat to Trump and his people,” says Mimi Rocah, a former chief of the office’s organized crime unit. In February the Times reported that Trump had asked Barr’s predecessor, Matthew Whitaker, whether a perceived loyalist could be put in charge of the SDNY’s work; Whitaker subsequently denied, under oath, having had any such conversation. But it’s hard to imagine Trump won’t try to intercede if the famously independent SDNY—currently back in the headlines for charging billionaire Jeffrey Epstein with sex trafficking—moves to indict one or more of the president’s high-ranking associates. (Epstein has pleaded not guilty.) “The fear is that Trump doesn’t even need to say it out loud anymore, because Barr is so protective of him,” Rocah says. “It would be ridiculously naïve not to be concerned.”

  Vanity Fair        July 2019

And, here's your bottom line:

UPDATE:

I'd like to think so, but I'm not that confident.

UPDATE:

There seems to be a little confusion.  So unusual for this administration.

UPDATE:  Berman steps down.

Deconstructing America - Part whatever

Of course they have.

From February through September, the agency, now headed by Wall Street lawyer Jay Clayton, collected $127 million in corporate civil penalties in 15 cases, according to a POLITICO review of SEC data. That compares with $702 million in 43 cases from February through September 2016.

  Politico

What a boon to Wall Street.

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

Draining the Swamp - Part Whatever

Jay Clayton, Donald Trump's choice to head the SEC, is slated to appear before the Senate Banking Committee Thursday. In that hearing, he may be asked about some pointed questions about his personal holdings.

Clayton is already an unusual choice, given that he's slated to be a primary regulator of Wall Street while a chunk of his family income will continue to come from Goldman Sachs, where his wife Gretchen works.

  Matt Taibbi

Actually, as Republican administrations go, that's a typical choice, not an unusual one.

Although he will have to recuse himself from enforcement cases involving Goldman, he will not have to sit out of a broad range of other regulatory decisions that affect the company.

[...]

In Clayton's absurdly baroque Form 278 financial disclosure – if you want to feel like your financial life is meager and uncomplicated, take a look at this staggeringly long list of income sources for the former Sullivan and Cromwell mainstay – he lists, under "other assets and income," a series of entries involving a company called WMB Holdings.

[...]

But WMB, and a company called CSC – with which it appears to have a connection – is a company of a very particular type, known well to white-collar investigators.

"It's a corporate formation company," says Jack Blum, an expert on white-collar crime and money laundering who is best known for his investigation of the BCCI scandal. "You call them up, and 20 minutes later you've got a Delaware corporation. I'm exaggerating, of course, but that's what they do."

[...]

The worst-case scenario is a string of shell companies that end in an opaque offshore haven. "That's when the trail becomes impossible to follow," says Blum. Investigators who try to follow money into offshore banking havens have almost no hope of getting answers there, he says.

[...]

"If you want to launder money, evade tax or hide assets from a spouse, you can do it."

Clayton's family seems to have a serious interest in this firm. He lists a series of family trusts containing WMB holdings, most producing high annual dividends.

[...]

The endnote claims Clayton has no beneficial interest or control in these holdings, but that his wife and/or children have a "beneficial interest."

And surely he can't benefit from his wife's or his children's benefits.

Even if WMB and CSC are completely above-board, it's a strange sort of investment for the top cop on the financial beat. It will be interesting to see if he sheds some light on his holdings when he's questioned this week.

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

Even Drudge?

Draining the Swamp

Trump picking as SEC chief someone who once represented Goldman, Sachs may be the least surprising story of 2017: https://t.co/a7F7x2zAEp

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 4, 2017

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