More than 160 former Manhattan federal prosecutors have signed an open letter condemning President Donald Trump’s firing of U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman.
“We, all former U.S. Attorneys and Assistant U.S. Attorneys for the Southern District of New York, deplore the recent actions of President Trump and Attorney General Barr in summarily firing U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman without cause,” the prosecutors wrote.
“The actions of the President and the Attorney General are an attack on the concept that investigations should be conducted in a nonpartisan manner,” the former prosecutors wrote. “They are politicizing an office that for more than 200 years has remained apolitical, and are undermining confidence in our criminal justice system. We call on our elected officials – Republicans and Democrats alike – to take all appropriate action to protect the administration of justice in the Southern District of New York and elsewhere from this kind of political interference.”
“Founded in 1789, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York was the first federal attorney’s office in the young country and for over 200 years has stood for the independence of the administration of Justice – independent of political and personal interests of the Executive branch of the Government and independent of other special interests,” they wrote. “It was, for example, a Republican-appointed U.S. Attorney who prosecuted former members of Richard Nixon’s cabinet and a Democratic-appointed U.S. Attorney who prosecuted one of the most powerful Democrats in the State. The impartial administration of Justice is what distinguishes the United States from authoritarian regimes around the world and is fundamental to our democracy. The President and the Attorney General have put this long and important tradition at risk.”
Former national security advisor John Bolton told ABC News that President Trump had intervened in a federal prosecution out of the Southern District of New York of a Turkey state bank – Halkbank – for evading sanctions against Iran.
Halkbank was charged in October 2019 in a six-count criminal indictment with fraud, money laundering, and sanctions offenses related to the bank’s participation in a multibillion-dollar scheme to evade U.S. sanctions on Iran.
Bolton told ABC there were a number of conversations between the president and Erdogan of Turkey on the subject of Halkbank.
“What Erdogan wanted was basically a settlement that would take the pressure off Halkbank,” Bolton said in his interview with ABC’s Martha Raddatz. “And the president said to Erdogan at one point — look, those prosecutors in New York are Obama people. Wait till I get my people in and then we’ll take care of this.”
“And I thought to myself – and I’m a Department of Justice alumnus myself – I’ve never heard any president say anything like that. Ever.”
Bolton told Raddatz that the prosecution has continued despite the president’s alleged conversation with Erdogan.
He said he found the episode “disturbing” as an example of the president’s belief he could intervene in the justice system under the influence of a foreign leader.
“I don’t think I know enough about all the circumstances, but I tell ya, it did feel like obstruction of justice to me,” Bolton said. “The president has enormous power in the law enforcement area. The executive power is vested in the president.”
“This idea that you give Erdogan and his family, who use Halkbank like a slush fund — in exchange for, what, some hope down the road of some other kind of treatment for Trump or the country — was very troubling,” Bolton said.
Here is a listing of the former Manhattan federal prosecutors who signed the letter condemning the firing of Berman:
1 Jonathan S. Abernethy
2 Elkan Abramowitz
3 Robin E. Abrams
4 Nick Akerman
5 Daniel S. Alter
6 Rich Appel
7 Allen Applbaum
8 Antonia M. Apps
9 Robin L. Baker
10 Celia Goldwag Barenholtz
11 Lisa Baroni
12 James J. Benjamin Jr.
13 Richard Ben-Veniste
14 Kim Berger
15 Neil S. Binder
16 Christina Paglia Bischoff
17 Barry A. Bohrer
18 Megan L. Brackney
19 Alvin Bragg
20 Laurie E. Brecher
21 David E. Brodsky
22 Stacey Brodsky
23 Alan J. Brudner
24 Jacob W. Buchdahl
25 George S. Canellos
26 Katherine Choo
27 John Clopper
28 Steven M. Cohen
29 Jonathan Cohen
30 Glenn Colton
31 William Craco
32 Jenna Dabbs
33 Frederick T. Davis
34 Richard Davis
35 Michael Devorkin
36 Cynthia Keeffe Dunne
37 Amie N. Ely
38 Christian R. Everdell
39 Ira M. Feinberg
40 Zachary Feingold
41 Edward T. Ferguson
42 Michael Ferrara
43 Harris Fischman
44 Stephen Fishbein
45 Eric B. Fisher
46 Robert B. Fiske Jr.
47 Thomas Fitzpatrick
48 Robert W. Gaffrey
49 Margaret Garnett
50 Michael Gilbert
51 Joshua A. Goldberg
52 Daniel Goldman
53 Andrew Goldstein
54 Katherine R. Goldstein
55 Christine Gray
56 Marc Greenwald
57 Nicole Gueron
58 Samidh Guha
59 Jason P.W. Halperin
60 Kenneth V. Handal
61 Nola B. Heller
62 Mark R. Hellerer
63 Jason Hernandez
64 Brian Jacobs
65 Elliott B. Jacobson
66 Douglas Jensen
67 Hon. Barbara Jones (Ret.)
68 Nancy Kestenbaum
69 Edward Y. Kim
70 David Koenigsberg
71 William C. Komaroff
72 Karen Konigsberg
73 Glen A. Kopp
74 Amanda K. Kramer
75 Paul M. Krieger
76 Debbie Landis
77 Douglas M. Lankler
78 Mark Lanpher
79 Christopher LaVigne
80 Alan Levine
81 Nick Lewin
82 Jon Liebman
83 Sarah E. Light
84 Andrea Likwornik
85 Robin Linsenmayer
86 Marc Litt
87 Jeffrey E. Livingston
88 Ellen London
89 W. Cullen MacDonald
90 Daniel Margolis
91 Richard W. Mark
92 Kathy S. Marks
93 John S. Martin
94 Rebecca C. Martin
95 David B. Massey
96 Manvin Mayell
97 Sarah Thomas Mayhew
98 Douglass Maynard
99 Glen McGorty
100 Brendan McGuire
101 Robert McGuire
102 Amy E. Millard
103 Julian J. Moore
104 Ross Morrison
105 Sara Moss
106 Jay K. Musoff
107 Daniel Nardello
108 Jaimie L. Nawaday
109 Kan M. Nawaday
110 Lynn Neils
111 Peter Neiman
112 Rosemary Nidiry
113 Michelle Parikh
114 Tai Park
115 James J. Pastore
116 Allison Penn
117 Danya Perry
118 Guy Petrillo
119 Ryan Poscablo
120 Henry Putzel III
121 Pablo Quiñones
122 Kevin S. Reed
123 Emily Reisbaum
124 Lee Renzin
125 Lee S. Richards III
126 Rebecca Ricigliano
127 Mimi Rocah
128 Jennifer Rodgers
129 Virginia Romano
130 Marc Rosenbaum
131 Daniel Ruzumna
132 Elliot G. Sagor
133 Ross Sandler
134 Edward Scarvalone
135 Kenneth I. Schacter
136 Andrew W. Schilling
137 Wendy Schwartz
138 William J. Schwartz
139 Paul L. Shechtman
140 Sarah L. Shudofsky
141 Peter M. Skinner
142 Deitrich L. Snell
143 Michael Sommer
144 Alexander H. Southwell
145 Shane Stansbury
146 Charles A. Stillman
147 Jonathan R. Streeter
148 Daniel B. Tehrani
149 K. Chris Todd
150 Jeffrey A. Udell
151 Niketh Velamoor
152 Franklin B. Velie
153 Peter Vigeland
154 Hadassa R. Waxman
155 Justin S. Weddle
156 Andrea Likwornik Weiss
157 Avi Weitzman
158 Jonathan A. Willens
159 Milton Williams
160 Frank H. Wohl
161 Russell Yankwitt
(Story updated June 30, 2020 to add names of former prosecutors who signed the letter after we published the original story. List grew from 135 to 161.)