Manhattan City Attorney Jeffrey Berman said Saturday that he will not resign after US Attorney General William Barr announced that he will appoint someone else to replace him. Berman has previously investigated the activities of close personalities of President Donald Trump, such as his attorneys, Rudolph Giuliani and Michael Cohen.
"I learned from a press statement from the Minister of Justice last night that I will leave my position as public prosecutor in the United States ... I have not submitted my resignation nor do I intend to resign from my post," Berman said in a statement. "I will step down when the Senate approves a candidate appointed by the presidency, and until then our investigations will continue without delay or interruption," he added.
The Justice Department said that Jeffrey Berman would leave office after two and a half years, and the White House issued a statement saying that President Trump intends to nominate a successor.
pic.twitter.com/hFNvQs5orV
- US Attorney SDNY (@SDNYnews) June 20, 2020
Powerful investigations And
Berman - a public prosecutor in the Southern District of New York - is leading a powerful prosecution office known for taking on major terrorism cases, financial crimes on Wall Street, and government corruption.
Since his appointment in January 2018, Berman has been reluctant to go after personalities in the Trump circle, as his office has overseen the investigation of Trump's former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, and has charged two of Trump's attorney, Rudolf Giuliani.
Berman's office also opened an investigation with Giuliani himself over his efforts to hunt Trump's political opponents in Ukraine with the aim of tarnishing their image, led by Joe Biden, former US Vice President and Democratic candidate to compete with Trump in the upcoming presidential elections.
This confrontation between the Trump administration and the Attorney General in Manhattan represents a new episode in a series of unusual steps by the Minister of Justice, which some say aims to benefit Trump politically and undermine the independence of the ministry.
These developments also come at a time when Trump is trying to get rid of officials who do not see them as full support. In recent weeks, the US president has sacked a number of government officials, including one who played a key role in Trump's parliamentary accountability this year.
A setback for
Trump In the past few days, President Trump has suffered a setback as a result of two US Supreme Court rulings that do not satisfy Trump's wishes in cases dear to his conservative supporters. On two occasions during the past week, the Supreme Court has expanded the right to equal protection for homosexuals and transgender people, and has also maintained The protection afforded to some undocumented immigrants, which the Trump administration has sought to end.
During Trump's three and a half years in office, he replaced two of the nine Supreme Court justices, seeking to make her palm tilt to the right for many years to come, but the two rulings in the sea of the week were in favor of the left, which angered conservatives and posed a threat to Trump's re-election.