The latest round of drama in the SDNY did NOT go the way the NeverTrumpers had intended.
If there were one nexus of power in which the legal profession had a HQ for their NeverTrump resistance movement (aside from the swampier parts of D.C., obviously) it would have to be SDNY.
Much of the legal activity that put Trump in its crosshairs has originated there. But of course, we are expected to believe that none of that was politically motivated.
The US Attorney of the SDNY took his fight to social media, framing Barr as not only improperly removing him from his role, but also doing so for politically corrupt reasons.
He also declared that he was NOT going to leave.
How sure are you of that, Mr. Berman? Mark Levin Gives Legal Context:
Berman: "I learned in a press release from the Attorney General tonight that I was 'stepping down' … I have not resigned, and have no intention of resigning … our investigations will move forward without delay or interruption." pic.twitter.com/P7esUGwAvv
— Breaking News (@BreakingNews) June 20, 2020
This public release was meant to injure Barr and/or Trump politically. But playing that card hurt Berman himself, too. Barr made his response just as public as Berman’s criticism. It made Berman look small.
BREAKING: AG Barr to Berman: "Because you have declared that you have no intention of resigning, I have asked the President to remove you as of today, and he has done so." https://t.co/xm4NcHXI7O pic.twitter.com/fi2aL2jNHv
— Evan McMurry (@evanmcmurry) June 20, 2020
Barr called him out for going public with and politicizing an HR situation that was already being addressed face to face. Another position HAD been offered to him, in one of the senior positions that had been discussed, but what might have otherwise been a reassignment has become a termination.
Here he is trying to salvage some part of his dignity.
Geoff Berman says he’s leaving: pic.twitter.com/nY5rdCnaRQ
— Shimon Prokupecz (@ShimonPro) June 20, 2020
Go ahead and call it a win, if your ego requires it, but we know the truth. You were looking for a way to pressure the Trump Team. You don’t like that Trump has political authority or that he is using it in ways that conflict with your political objectives. So you will try to thwart him at every opportunity, using tactics fair and otherwise.
Speaking of ‘otherwise’…
Jerry Nadler and company are sharpening their impeachment knives again. But since they know they can’t stop him through impeachment, they are cutting the AG’s budget by $50M.
Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren has led calls for Barr to be impeached but Nadler said: “He certainly deserves impeachment but that would be a waste of time.
“We know that we have a corrupt Republican majority in the Senate which will not consider an impeachment no matter what the evidence and no matter what the facts,” Nadler said, saying such senators were “corrupt against the interests of the country”.
Measures against Barr would include the budget cut, he said. —TheGuardian
Sure would be a shame if a tactic like that backfired on a party that seems to openly oppose law and order, wouldn’t it?
