After Initially Defying the Donald, SDNY Prosecutor Now Tenders Resignation

Over the course of this last weekend, a strange story began to develop out of the judicial system in the Southern District of New York.

It all began Friday when SDNY prosecutor Geoffrey Berman was asked to resign during a meeting with Attorney General Bill Barr.  During that meeting, Berman refused, and Barr later made a public statement declaring that Berman was indeed leaving his post.

This prompted Berman to issue a statement via social media whose basic gist was that he would only leave his position if he was dragged out of there by a congressionally-appointed replacement.

Now, just over a day later, everything has changed yet again.

Geoffrey Berman, the powerful prosecutor atop the Manhattan US Attorney’s office who has pursued President Donald Trump and his allies, said he would exit his post Saturday, ending a standoff after Trump and Attorney General William Barr fired him.

Berman’s departure came a day after he refused Barr’s request that he resign. In a curt letter to Berman on Saturday, Barr told him Trump had agreed to remove him and conceded that Berman’s deputy would succeed him.

“Unfortunately, with your statement of last night, you have chosen public spectacle over public service,” Barr wrote in his letter 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.”

One can only imagine what sort of tertiary communication may have been involved in Berman’s sudden change of heart.