Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

This really is a full service blog.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

If you cannot answer whether trump lost the 2020 election, you are unfit for office.

Dumb motherfuckers cannot understand a consequence that most 4 year olds have fully sorted out.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

How stupid are these people?

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

T R E 4 5 O N

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

Disagreements are healthy; personal attacks are not.

White supremacy is terrorism.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Tonight’s Friday Night Massacre

Tonight’s Friday Night Massacre

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We’ve become accustomed to Friday night massacres, although Trump’s have been more incremental than Nixon’s.

This one started out with the story that the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Geoffrey Berman, had resigned. Perhaps he had been offered jobs in other parts of the Department of Justice and turned them down. Much speculation ensued as to the cause of what looked like a firing. The Southern District of New York has investigated many Trump and Rudy Giuliani crimes and had more on their plate. John Bolton mentioned them in his book when Trump offered Turkey’s Erdogan to fire Berman so that there would be no investigation into Halkbank.

But then Berman issued a statement

That’s hot off Twitter.

Open Thread!

Reader Interactions

58Comments

  3. 3.

    TaMara (HFG)

    Part 2 is delicious.

  8. 8.

    Spaniel

    Other than the Turkey problem, is there something else the office is currently investigating that could be causing Trump and Barr to be worried about?

  9. 9.

    Cheryl Rofer

    The legal eagles, as per lamh36’s comment at #4, seem to think that Trump/Barr can’t fire Berman.

    Speculation has moved to who is currently in charge of Berman’s physical office.

  12. 12.

    danielx

    @bluehill:

    Wonder how many minutes into tomorrow’s hate fest it will be when this “mutinous guy named Berman” comes up. And I hope his security is good, because deliberate defiance of the One is anathema to the armed faithful.

  13. 13.

    Kay

    So, among other things, this means Barr told yet another blatant lie. That much we know.

    The attorney general of the United States lies to the public constantly- he usually gets caught almost immediately, too. Then the next day he does it again.

  16. 16.

    Cheryl Rofer

  17. 17.

    Feathers

    Her mother died of COVID-19 yesterday and her feed is filled with rage.

    Laurie Kilmartin @anylaurie16

    In lieu of flowers, the family asks that you throw hot coffee on the face of anyone not wearing a mask.

    Probably belonged in Adam’s thread, but here it is.

  18. 18.

    danielx

    @Kay:

    Makes me feel those medieval insults. You know, like ‘ill mannered dishonorable swine’ or the like.

    Which does disrespect that noble creature the pig, I admit.

  19. 19.

    cmorenc

    Hopefully when (not if) Biden becomes the apparent POTUS-elect in the Nov election – to what extent are Trump, Barr, et. al. likely to try to destroy evidence of illegal (particularly criminally illegal) conduct by Trump, Barr and other key officials, and to what extent are there secure backups of such records, inaccessible to their reach?

  20. 20.

    Kay

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    You have to admire Berman though, for not taking Barr’s bribe.

    They can’t even massacre anyone properly. They botched their Friday night massacre. He refused to go along.

  21. 21.

    Steeplejack

    @Spaniel:

    Washington Post:

    Berman’s office has been conducting a criminal investigation of President Trump’s lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, in a campaign finance case that has already led to charges against two of Giuliani’s associates.

    [. . .]

    Berman’s office has a long tradition of charting its own course on high-profile cases. The office has filed campaign finance charges against two Giuliani associates, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, accusing them of conspiracy and making false statements to the Federal Election Commission.

    People familiar with the case have said investigators are scrutinizing Giuliani’s consulting business and eyeing donations made to America First Action, the main pro-Trump super PAC set up by his advisers and allies after his election, as well as a nonprofit affiliated with the super PAC.

  22. 22.

    Kay

    @danielx:

    Barr isn’t even a competent assassin. Your victim isn’t supposed to remain standing and tell you to fuck off.

    The Nixon comparisons give these people way too much credit.

  23. 23.

    Cheryl Rofer

    More here:

    Barr announced the personnel change in a statement, saying the president plans to nominate the current chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Jay Clayton, for the job.

    Berman’s office has been conducting a criminal investigation of President Trump’s lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani in a campaign finance case that has already led to charges against two of Giuliani’s associates.

    and

    Barr said in his statement that while the Senate considers Clayton’s nomination, the job will be filled by Craig Carpenito, who is the U.S. attorney in New Jersey. Carpenito will take over the job on July 3, Barr said.

    “Geoff has done an excellent job leading one of our nation’s most significant U.S. Attorney’s Offices, achieving many successes on consequential civil and criminal matters,” Barr said.

  27. 27.

    Cheryl Rofer

    Okay, just one more –

  28. 28.

    Leto

    @dmsilev:

     Berman’s office has been conducting a criminal investigation of President Trump’s lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani in a campaign finance case that has already led to charges against two of Giuliani’s associates. People familiar with the case have said investigators are scrutinizing Giuliani’s consulting business and eyeing donations made to America First Action, the main pro-Trump super PAC set up by his advisers and allies after his election, as well as a nonprofit affiliated with the super PAC.

    WaPo story.

  29. 29.

    Kay

    Mr. Berman’s office has taken an aggressive approach in a number of cases that have vexed the Trump administration, from the prosecution and guilty pleas obtained from Mr. Cohen to a broader investigation, growing out of that inquiry, which focused on Mr. Trump’s private company and others close to him.
    Over the last year, Mr. Berman’s office brought indictments against two close associates of the president’s current lawyer, Mr. Giuliani, and began an investigation into Mr. Giuliani himself, focusing on whether his efforts to dig up dirt in Ukraine on the president’s political rivals violated laws on lobbying for foreign entities.

    The corruption is just right out in the open now. No one even pretends it’s about anything other than protecting Trump cronies from prosecution.

  32. 32.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Dear god, the timing. Trump ordered Barr to fire Berman to distract from Trump’s mess of a rally tomorrow.

  35. 35.

    James E Powell

    @Kay:

    The attorney general of the United States lies to the public constantly- he usually gets caught almost immediately, too. Then the next day he does it again.

    Barr has yet to suffer for his lying. In fact, it’s done him and Trump a lot of good because the press/media still responds as if he were a bona fide attorney-general.

  36. 36.

    Aleta

    Vanity Fair, Oct. 2019
    …
    Trump fired Bharara as head of the SDNY in March 2017 and later installed Berman, a Republican who had donated to Trump’s 2016 campaign. Berman is also a former law partner of Giuliani’s, at Greenberg Traurig, but the two men don’t seem to have much of a relationship. The SDNY is famously independent of its bosses at Main Justice, in Washington, but no one is quite sure where the lines are under Attorney General Bill Barr, who has been fiercely protective of Trump.

    Lately there’s been chatter in Department of Justice circles that Berman could be fired and replaced by Ed O’Callaghan, currently associate deputy attorney general. “That would be such a stupid thing to do,” another SDNY alumnus says. “It’s sort of hard to believe anyone would do it. But we are talking about Trump. …”

    …

     

    The day-to-day of the Ukraine-related investigation is being handled by the SDNY’s public corruption unit, headed by Russell Capone and Ted Diskant, both of whom are too young to have overlapped with Giuliani’s time in the office—he left at the end of 1988 to mount his first, unsuccessful run for mayor of New York City. “Russell is meticulous and low-key,” says Glen Kopp, a former SDNY colleague. “So low-key that his aggressive side can catch you by surprise if you haven’t worked with him before.” Diskant is second-generation SDNY: His father, Gregory, was its chief appellate attorney in the late ’70s.

    …  Giuliani has not been charged with anything, and he told Reuters that “I know beyond any doubt the source of the money is not any questionable source.” Yet Giuliani’s entanglement in the Ukraine mess is already a source of aggravation to the SDNY professional family. “We have a lot of pride in that office, and in its leaders. We usually boast about it,” says Kopp, who was a partner at the law firm Bracewell & Giuliani for two years after leaving the Southern District. “I don’t think the office would collectively be thrilled to indict a former U.S. attorney. If Rudy ends up getting charged, it’s a sad state of affairs.”

  37. 37.

    Ascap_scab

    So drunk Matt Gaetz “adopted” a 12yo Cuban pool boy and never told anyone about it. Okay.

  38. 38.

    Mary G

    @Kay: That is kind of gobsmacking. You’d think by the law of averages they would get something right, but they always fuck it up.

  40. 40.

    Gemina13

    What is Trump trying to divert our attention from?  The rally?  I don’t think so; it’s already eaten up a leonine share of attention.  Deutsche Bank, his taxes, Rudy Giuliani?  I don’t buy it.  There’s something he’s desperately trying to cover up, and we won’t see it until Monday or Tuesday because the media’s chasing after this bright, shiny new object.

  44. 44.

    M31

    The rally was supposed to be the distraction from this firing, but they forgot that the rally got moved off of Juneteenth.

    “they fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!”

  45. 45.

    Gemina13

    @JPL:   **ears prick up**

    I’m also seeing quite a bit of chatter about unredacted bits of the Mueller report.

  46. 46.

    piratedan

    @JPL: if you link thru that tweet stream, there’s another leading to Abramson (take that for what its worth) that supposedly implicates Barr not as a shield man for the shenanigans financial, but also alleges him as a co-conspirator, as the guy who can get the cases in progress against the outside money that is funding Trump, off the books (for a price I assume, payable quo pros politically and financially..).

    I’ve found Abramson to be iffy myself, but as always ymma… the other alleged iron in the fire is the Eastern Va feds also have something cooking that implicates Barr as well (or so its implied)…

    in a way I feel like Ben Bradlee in all the presidents men, when is somebody going to go on the record about all of this bullshit… (and in this media environment, publish and promote it).

  47. 47.

    cursorial

    More of this, please! I’m so tired of senior officials resigning on request, or retiring, or being “promoted” out of their position. I know it’s the protocol, and violating it has consequences for your career, but it’s obvious by now that the most patriotic thing to do is just keep showing up at the office until they have security carry you out.

    These buffoons aren’t bureaucratic infighters in the Dick Cheney mode – it’s entirely possible they don’t know how to get rid of someone who just refuses to leave their post.

  50. 50.

    Chetan Murthy

    @LesGS: It’s possible it’s all on the up-and-up.  It’s also possible Gaetz is a pedophile ephebophile [sic].  It is precisely b/c he “adopted” this 12yo child, that somebody ought to investigate.

  51. 51.

    Jinchi

    @Misterpuff: I can’t believe Trump doesn’t have a couple of gold plated statues of himself already.
    Maybe when the pitchfork brigade overruns Maralago they’ll have a chance to pull them down.

  52. 52.

    LesGS

    @Chetan Murthy: I don’t disagree. I am, however, uncomfortable that a 12 year old child is being tagged with the sexually suggestive description of “pool boy.” (I know he’s 19 now. I’m referring to the original comment.) The sleaze, if there was sleaze (and a crime), shouldn’t slop over onto the youth.

  53. 53.

    Chetan Murthy

    @LesGS: The manner in which Gaetz made these revelations, made such a controversy inevitable.  From what I understand, he didn’t -actually- adopt the young man, there is a real biological father in the picture, and in previous media where the young man has appeared in the background, Gaetz has -not- claimed him as a “son”.  It’s all very suspicious, and (again) Gaetz is the one who started this.

  54. 54.

    LesGS

    @Chetan Murthy: Yes, to all you say. I am simply objecting to the phrase “12 year old pool boy.” That’s a sexualized term being applied to a child.

  55. 55.

    Mai naem mobile

    I’ve had a couple of non political junkie friends mention the Orange Julius/Epstein deal. I don’t know if that’s under Berman or another agency but that seems to have the eye of people because of the salacious nature of the allegations.  Personally I think its his taxes because of the money laundering.

  57. 57.

    J R in WV

    So much, so many scandals ~!!~ Who can keep track of them all?

    The SDNY can !

    Also, Anti-Fascist was in the beginning FDR, Truman, Churchill, Eisenhower, Patton, so many more, that’s just off the top of my head.

    And now Trump is Pro-Fascist, who could have figured? But the Republicans have always leaned towards Fascism… ever since they swept up the Dixiecrats in the mid-1960s after Civil Rights became a Democratic thing.

  58. 58.

    Wyatt Derp

    I don’t know if I credit Berman with a lot of integrity for turning down the promotion. He is a Trump supporter and contributor. He is likely just looking at the reality of the situation and his future career.

    If Trump loses in November his “promotion” would have lasted all of 6 months or so until he gets broomed out of office by the new administration and forever known as the guy who Trump bought off to kill the investigations. By staying now he is setting himself up for a reward from the new administration (and of course doing the right thing). He has clearly come to the conclusion that Trump is a lame duck and any promises he makes have a very short shelf life.

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