Donald Trump was asked prior to leaving for Tulsa, Oklahoma, why did he decide to fire Southern District of New York U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman. According to Trump, he hasn’t fired him and is actually not involved.
But that contradicts Attorney General William Barr, who wrote in a publicly released letter to Berman that, “I have asked the president to remove you as of today, and he has done so.”
Trump, shortly afterwards, said that it was up to Barr if he wanted to fire Berman or not. “I’m not involved,” he said.
Trump on Barr's claim Trump fired Geoff Berman: "That's really up to him. I'm not involved" pic.twitter.com/yB0Fjc61Uv
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) June 20, 2020
If Trump isn’t involved in firing Berman, then it looks like Berman is still the U.S. Attorney. Barr doesn’t have the authority to fire Berman on his own.
I’d like to take Barr at his word that Trump did, in fact, fire Berman. But Barr lied to us yesterday. https://t.co/Bv7p7cdEaU
— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) June 20, 2020
Prominent figures note how incompetent Trump is through his remarks.
He really is dumber than a bag of rocks. https://t.co/KrInNEg2IY
— George Conway (@gtconway3d) June 20, 2020