From a statement released from the U.S. Park Police regarding crowd control for
Trumps' church photo op:

"As many of the protestors became more combative, continued to throw projectiles, and attempted to grab officers’ weapons, officers then employed the use of smoke canisters and pepper balls. No tear gas was used by USPP officers or other assisting law enforcement partners to close the area at Lafayette Park. "

Pepper is the main ingredient used in bear sprays. Anyone who believes getting a whiff of a pepper based
spray doesn't produce burning, tearing eyes, temporary loss of vision and burning nose and throat has very
limited knowledge of the medical effects.

You can dance around the definition of 'tear gas', but the stuff used on the protesters in
DC produced the same effects on people.

Trump wants to be dictator, not president.

Well if they didn't mean tear gas then they shouldn't have reported it all day long. And as you posted, it was set off to disperse the crowd because they began throwing objects at the cops. Not because they wanted to clear the street for Trump's photo op, as they reported for a day. Even after the record was set straight.

They are absolute liars. All day long every day. You can try to make excuses but it will be an epic fail.

Good to see you any way, Rocky! Hope you are doing well.

And by the way, after spending years pushing a Trump-Russia conspiracy that was all lies, the main stream media is not covering the Rosenstein hearings in the Senate today. The man who started the Meuller special counsel. You would think they'd want to hear what he says. Hm, weird. So my liberal friends might not know that right off the top he was asked if he knew then what he knows now would he have signed off on the FISA warrants and Rosenstein said "NO".

Lindsey Graham - “I'm saying in January the 4th 2017, the FBI had discounted Flynn. There was no evidence that Carter Page worked with the Russians. The dossier was a bunch of garbage and Papadopoulos is all over the place, not knowing he's being recorded, denying working with the Russians. Nobody has ever been prosecuted for working with the Russians. The point is, the whole concept that the campaign was colluding w/Russians, there was no "there, there" in August 2017.”

“Do you agree with that general statement or not?”

Rod Rosenstein: “I agree with that general statement.”

Oh my God, now Jim Acosta is bringing up the same photo op nonsense in the press briefing. Trying to act like the protesters were victims here for a photo op.

Enough splitting hairs. It’s as simple as this. The US Secret Service tells you that you need to back up farther away from the White House then you friggin do it. I know there is a spot there where people regularly protest, but if the US SS thinks for whatever reason it needs to be backed up then back it up. You don’t get pissed and start throwing bricks and frozen water bottles At them, which they did. You just back the F up.

And if you don’t agree with that then you’re part of the problem.

And while I’m on it and my dander is up, what ever happened to applying for permits to protest? I’m all for all our rights, including the right to assemble and protest. But what happened to having a designated place and time? I’m not talking about that same area right now as above, as I said, I know people regularly hang out there are are allowed to. But I’m talking other places.

What gives these people the right to just take over cities, streets, and highways. Frighten people in cars to death to the point they feel like they have to run people over to save their own skin. Let alone allowing them to destroy property and steal, and assault people.

The Governors and Mayors have let this get way out of hand and now people are getting hurt all the time. It’s ridiculous. Blood is on their hands due to weakness.

Ronaldo Reagan, about the Berkeley riots in 1969 -

”This began when some of you who know better, who are old enough to know better, let young people think they get to choose the laws they wish to obey cause they were doing it in the name of social protest.”

TFIR

Did you see this video from Rochester?

https://twitter.com/stillgray/status/12 ... 5437362176

Trump administration eases restrictions on killing bear cubs and wolf pups in their dens in Alaska

BY SOPHIE LEWIS

JUNE 10, 2020 / 7:08 PM / CBS NEWS

Hunters in Alaska will soon be allowed to use bacon grease and doughnuts to bait brown bears, spotlights to shoot hibernating mother bears and cubs in their dens and motorboats to shoot swimming caribou — thanks to a reversal of Obama-era guidelines by the Trump administration this week.

Effective July 9, hunting on nature preserves in Alaska will once again be controlled by the state rather than the federal government. The new rule, published Tuesday in the Federal Register, reverses hunting bans put in place in all National Parks by the Obama administration in 2015 following years of pleading by environmental and wildlife protection groups.

The rules, which many see as cruel and unnecessary, allow baiting of brown and black bears with human food, hunting of bears in their dens using artificial light, killing of wolves and coyotes in their dens during the season when mothers wean their young, using dogs to hunt bears and hunting of swimming caribou from boats. These actions were banned by Obama federally despite being permitted by the state of Alaska.

The Trump administration has been working to reverse the ban for years, stemming from 2017 orders to expand recreational activities on public lands from former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. The president's son, Donald Trump Jr., is an avid trophy hunter and has long championed the expansion of hunting rights on federally protected lands.

Lawmakers and native tribes in Alaska praised the law change, saying it puts the power back in the hands of the state.

The reversal "confirms the sovereign authorities the state has with respect to managing wildlife on our national preserve lands. This is a step towards acknowledging Alaska's rightful control over fish and wildlife resources all across the state," Alaska Governor Michael J. Dunleavy said last month.

"The previous rule was implemented without adequate tribal consultation, in disregard to rural Alaska's dependence on wild food resources," stated Victor Joseph, Chief and Chairman of the Tanana Chiefs Conference, which represents 42 tribes. "The previous limitations enacted in 2015 threatened our way of life and our centuries-long sustainable management practices."

However, the reversal is seen as a major setback for animal advocacy groups. The Humane Society of the United States described the trophy hunting tactics as "horribly cruel."

"I would say the vast majority of people did believe this was a controversial move and were almost entirely opposed to us lifting the ban," National Park Service spokesman Peter Christian told Reuters.

"By opening season on the animals it's supposed to protect just to appease a few trophy hunters, the agency — and this administration — have not only shown themselves to be extremely poor stewards of our public lands, they have let down a majority of Americans who would never sanction such cruelty against our native wildlife," Kitty Block and Sara Amundson from the Humane Society wrote in a blog post.

"Shooting hibernating mama and baby bears is not the conservation legacy that our national parks are meant to preserve and no way to treat or manage park wildlife," National Parks Conservation Association President and CEO Theresa Pierno said in a statement.

"The Trump administration has shockingly reached a new low in its treatment of wildlife," Jamie Rappaport Clark, the president and CEO of the Defenders of Wildlife, said in a statement. "Allowing the killing of bear cubs and wolf pups in their dens is barbaric and inhumane."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-admi ... ps-alaska/

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After record primary turnout, Iowa senate Republicans try to limit vote-by-mail in presidential election

BY NICOLE GOODKIND
June 9, 2020 11:44 AM CDT

Iowa set a new record for primary election turnout this month after secretary of state Paul Pate sent applications for mail-in ballots to all registered voters. More than 520,000 ballots were cast, according to Pate’s office, beating the previous record of 450,000 set in 1994.

Now, Republicans in the state senate are trying to prevent him from doing the same in the general election this November.

The Iowa Senate State Government Committee advanced a 30-page bill on a party-line vote late last week that would prohibit Pate, also a Republican, from proactively sending applications for mail-in-ballots to all registered voters. Anyone who wanted a mail-in ballot would need to submit a written request on their own and show proof of valid voter identification.

The bill would prohibit the secretary from taking emergency election action in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The secretary can make changes in cases of extreme weather or during wartime, it says, but not during a health crisis. It also prevents Pate from making any changes to the early or absentee voting process, even in an emergency.


In addition, the bill would require election offices to send reminder notices to any voter who misses one general election and would require his or her status to be updated to “inactive” before the notices are sent. Current law says that notices should sent after four years of no voting, with no change in status unless the post office returns the notice as undeliverable.

According to Johnson County elections worker John Deeth, this could affect the status of hundreds of thousands of voters who only participate in presidential elections, rendering them “inactive,” which is the first step toward canceling a voter’s registration.

Senator Roby Smith, who proposed the bill, says that the changes come in response to fears of voter fraud. “This ensures Iowa registered voters continue to have safe, secure, and reliable elections,” the senator told Iowa Public Radio.

There have been 23 people convicted of voter fraud in the state over the past five years, according to the Iowa Gazette.

The Iowa State Association of County Auditors, a nonpartisan group, expressed confusion over the purpose of the bill.

“County auditors, as local commissioners of elections, are baffled by this,” wrote president Roxanna Moritz in a letter to Iowa lawmakers. “The 2020 primary was very successful, based on a variety of metrics, largely due to the steps taken by the secretary. Counties experienced record or near-record turnout. Election Day went very smoothly. Results were rapidly available. Why would the state want to cripple the process that led to such success?”

Moritz added that the bill would hurt the state’s ability to prepare for elections in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Nothing about this is righteous. Nothing about this adds value. Nothing about this promotes voting,” tweeted Deidre DeJear, a Democrat running for Iowa secretary of state.

Smith later defended his bill, saying that local election officials and campaigns could still send out applications for ballots, and that his plans would just limit the secretary of state from doing so. His legislation, he said, would also extend application request deadlines for those who are hospitalized and would provide an extra week after elections for voters who fail to sign their envelopes (typically these voters are contacted by an election board and are asked to provide another signed document).

“This will actually expand absentee voting, and more absentee votes will be counted under this proposal,” he said.

But Smith has a history of limiting access to vote-by-mail and absentee ballots. Let America Vote, a national political action group that advocates for voter rights, added Smith to its “Voter Suppression Hall of Shame” in October for introducing a bill that would require absentee votes to be turned in by Election Day and that would close polling stations at 8 p.m. instead of 9 p.m. The bill would have also banned early satellite voting in state-owned buildings, like certain college campuses.

Senate Democrats also remained unconvinced.

“If a pandemic isn’t bad enough to go to an absentee ballot program, I don’t know what is. The attack on the secretary of state is unfair. He did a great job, a lot of people voted, and there has been no evidence of fraud,” Tony Bisignano, the top Democrat on the committee, told the Waterloo–Cedar Falls Courier.

The bill comes as President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that voting by mail-in ballot will lead to widespread voter fraud. The President has threatened to “hold up” federal funding to states like Michigan and Nevada because of their use of voting by mail to decrease large gatherings of people during the pandemic.

In California, the Republican National Committee, National Republican Congressional Committee, and California Republican Party have filed a lawsuit against Gov. Gavin Newsom and secretary of state Alex Padilla, calling the governor’s order to send mail-in ballots to every registered voter an illegal “usurpation of the legislature’s authority” to plan the “time, place, and manner” of the election.

But vote-by-mail fraud in the United States is exceedingly rare. One study found just 491 cases of absentee ballot fraud from 2000 to 2012 during a period where “literally billions of votes were cast,” according to election law professor Richard L. Hasen. There is no evidence that suggests that sending in ballots by mail results in a systematic bias toward either party.


https://fortune.com/2020/06/09/vote-by- ... ump-biden/

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Voting machines and coronavirus force long lines on Georgia voters

Georgia’s primary quickly turned into an ordeal for voters who waited for hours Tuesday when it became clear officials were unprepared for an election on new voting computers during the coronavirus pandemic.

Poll workers couldn’t get voting machines to work. Precincts opened late. Social-distancing requirements created long lines. Some voters gave up and went home.

The primary was a major test of Georgia’s ability to run a highly anticipated election in a potential battleground state ahead of November’s presidential election, when more than twice as many voters are expected. Elections officials fell short.“

What is going on in Georgia? We have been waiting for hours. This is ridiculous. This is unfair,” said 80-year-old Anita Heard, who waited for hours to cast her ballot at Cross Keys High School, where poll workers couldn’t start voting computers and ran out of provisional ballots.

Problems have been building for weeks as precincts closed, poll workers quit and the primary was postponed because of the health danger posed by the coronavirus crisis. Some voters south of Atlanta waited eight hours to vote on the last day of early voting Friday.

But the election went worse than expected Tuesday, especially in metro Atlanta, when poll workers couldn’t get Georgia’s new $104 million voting system system running. The system uses touchscreens and printers to create paper ballots.

Both Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and House Speaker David Ralston opened separate investigations Tuesday into elections management, focusing on Fulton County, where the largest number of problems were reported.

“Obviously, the first time a new voting system is used there is going to be a learning curve, and voting in a pandemic only increased these difficulties,” Raffensperger said. “But every other county faced these same issues and were significantly better prepared to respond so that voters had every opportunity to vote.”

Some local officials say the secretary of state bears responsibility.

DeKalb County CEO Michael Thurmond called issues with voting machines “an attack on the democratic process.”

“If there was a failure of leadership, it starts where the buck should stop, at the top. The eradication of any ‘learning curve’ rests squarely at the feet of the Georgia secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, and his office,” Thurmond said. “It is the secretary of state’s responsibility to train, prepare and equip election staff throughout the state to ensure fair and equal access to the ballot box.”

Raffensperger’s office denied there were any technical glitches with the voting equipment itself. Instead, poll workers didn’t know how to encode voter access cards, enter PIN numbers correctly or plug machines into power supplies.

Poll workers said that wasn’t always the case. They said they couldn’t log into voter check-in tablets, and ballots didn’t always display on touchscreens.

The secretary of state’s office dispatched tech support contractors across the state, but they were overwhelmed by calls when precincts opened at 7 a.m.

Most of the difficulties with voting machines were resolved, but long lines remained in some precincts. Other counties in Georgia, especially rural areas with lower populations, reported fewer problems.

But challenges with voting machines spread to several major cities, resulting in polls held open late in parts of metro Atlanta, Columbus and Savannah. In Columbus, for example, election officials said they had difficulties setting up ballot printers because they only gathered for training once because of the coronavirus.

Fulton, the state’s most populous county, Danielle Johnston had to wait three hours and 45 minutes to cast her ballot. Voters relayed word that voting machines weren’t working. Johnston said poll workers never communicated with the voters in line, and she was not offered a provisional ballot.

“This is insulting to our constitutional right to vote,” Johnston said. “I don’t know what their excuse is this time.”

Fulton has a long history of lines and delays in its elections, but elected officials said change is needed.

State Rep. William Boddie said Fulton was in a “complete meltdown.”

“My phone hasn’t stopped ringing. We’re having issues throughout the county,” the East Point Democrat said. “Did they not know this was going to be a voting day for months? Fulton County’s Board of Elections can’t be let off the hook this time. It’s inexcusable.”

Fulton County Commissioner Liz Hausmann, who stood in line for 2 1/2 hours, put the blame squarely on the county’s elections department.

“It’s another black eye for Fulton County,” Hausmann said. “We have management problems, I don’t know how you say otherwise.”

Many of the problems resulted from election workers who weren’t adequately trained, the subject of a lawsuit against the state government by Fair Fight Action, a voting rights group founded by Democrat Stacey Abrams after her defeat in the 2018 race for governor. The lawsuit seeks sweeping changes and federal court intervention in Georgia’s elections.

“Unfortunately, poll workers don’t always have the training and support that’s needed from the secretary of state,” said Seth Bringman, a spokesman for Fair Fight Action. “If poll workers statewide are not trained properly, the responsibility lies at the top.”

Over 1 million Georgians voted on absentee ballots before election day — an unprecedented increase in remote voting in Georgia — but that still left hundreds of thousands of in-person voters on Tuesday.

The voting problems in the primary foreshadows difficulties facing voters in the presidential election in November, said Michael McDonald, who runs the United States Elections Project at the University of Florida. About 5 million Georgia voters are expected to turn out this fall.

“I have never seen the scale of election failures happening in Georgia today,” McDonald said. “This does not bode well for November.”

https://www.ajc.com/news/state--regiona ... Cz7KwDrpJ/

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Another case in the LOOOOONG list of fraud in mail in elections.

VOTER FRAUD: Michigan City Clerk Charged With Altering Hundreds Of 2018 Midterm Ballots

Timothy Meads

Posted: Sep 24, 2019

National Review's Jack Crowe reports that a Michigan city clerk, honored with a prestigious award by the state Democratic Party just this year, has been charged with six felony counts after being accused of altering 193 ballots during the 2018 midterm elections.

Sherikia Hawkins, a registered Democrat who earns more than $100,000 on the taxpayer's dime, "was arraigned Monday in Southfield on charges including falsifying returns or records, forgery of a public record, misconduct in office, and multiple counts of using a computer to commit a crime," reports Crowe.

Her arrest came after the Oakland County Clerk’s Office noticed that the ballots had "been changed to reflect that the voters failed to include a valid signature or return date, when all of the implicated voters had in fact included both items." The original ballots were later discovered in the trash.

Hawkins has clerked for 16 elections, including a tightly contested Congressional race in 2010 as a deputy clerk. Gary Peters, a Democrat, ended up winning that election by a mere 6,504 votes out of 245,055.

Crowe reports that a state branch of American Rising is demanding a thorough inquiry into how many elections Hawkins may have impacted if the allegations are true.

"The charges against Ms. Hawkins are extremely troubling and must be fully investigated. The integrity of our elections is essential to the protection of our constitutional rights and individual liberty. Michigan Rising Action is calling for a full audit of every election that Ms. Hawkins oversaw in her capacity as an elections official,” Tori Sachs told National Review.

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/timothyme ... s-n2553605

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/ ... 416101001/

You guys take Trump's advice too seriously. The man is a pathological liar. Anything this guy says should be taken with a grain of salt. Trump still thinks the pandemic is a hoax! And! You guys believe it!!!

FACTCHECK.ORG:

Exaggerations on Voter Fraud

As we’ve explained before, experts say mail-in voting fraud is rare. Yet Trump claimed, “You can’t do the mail-in ballots because you’re going to have tremendous fraud.”

Trump, May 26: People steal them out of mailboxes. People print them and then they sign them, and they give them in. The people don’t even know where they’re double counted. People take them where they force people to vote. They harvest. You know what harvesting is. They take many, many ballots and they put them all together, and then they just dump them, and nobody has any idea whether they’re crooked or not.

When Trump made similar exaggerated claims in April, Richard L. Hasen, a professor of law and political science at the University of California, Irvine School of Law, and author of “The Voting Wars,” told us: “Election fraud committed with absentee ballots is more prevalent than in person voting but it is still rare.”

In an op-ed published in the Washington Post, Hasen pointed to News21, a national investigative reporting project that tracks cases of election fraud. It found that about 24% of reported prosecutions between 2000 and 2012 concerned absentee-ballot fraud, making it the most prevalent type of election fraud. “But the total number of cases was just 491 — during a period in which literally billions of votes were cast,” Hasen wrote.


He told us that states take actions to minimize the risk of fraud.

“The most common method for verifying ballots is signature matching,” Lorraine Minnite, a professor at Rutgers University and author of “The Myth of Voter Fraud,” told us in April.

That’s what Mahood told us California would do to prevent fraudulent voting.

“California county elections officials check each and every vote-by-mail ballot that is cast,” he said. “A voter’s signature on the vote-by-mail ballot return envelope is compared against the voter’s registration record. If a signature is missing or does not match the registration record, elections officials will reach out to the voter. If the voter does not respond and provide a missing/corrected signature, the ballot will not count.”

California voters can also use a “Where’s My Ballot?” online tool to get updates on the status of their ballots.

“I don’t think anyone can give you a reliable measure of the prevalence of voter fraud with mail-in ballots, but my sense is that it is not much more frequent than in-person voter fraud, which rarely occurs,” Minnite said.

In a well-known recent case, the results of the 2018 midterm election in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District were overturned after a state investigation found a Republican political operative improperly collected and possibly altered or discarded ballots to sway the election. The operative was indicted on felony charges.

Trump also claimed that Democrats wanted mail-in voting “because, in theory, it’s good for them.” But a recent study disputes that.

Stanford University’s Democracy & Polarization Lab found that neither party would benefit from an entirely mail-in-voting system. “We find that universal vote-by-mail does not affect either party’s share of turnout or either party’s vote share,” the study said.

The operative, Leslie McCrae Dowless, was charged with three felony counts of obstruction of justice, two counts of conspiring to commit obstruction of justice and two counts of possession of absentee ballots, according to court documents.

Allegations that operatives working for Dowless illegally collected, and sometimes filled in, absentee ballots on behalf of Republican Mark Harris’ campaign emerged shortly after the Nov. 6 election. They caused the state to hold off certifying Harris’ apparent narrow victory over Democrat Dan McCready...

By The way, antagonist and hypocrites at large Donald J Trump, Kayleigh McEnany, Kellyanne Conway, Wilbur Ross just to name a few, all vote by mail. Guess what! Melania Trump and Ivanka Trump also vote by mail. What's good for the goose should be good for the gander.

https://www.factcheck.org/2020/05/more- ... rom-trump/

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Voice of America: independence fears after Trump ally purges senior officials

‘Wednesday night massacre’ ignites concerns Michael Pack will turn state-funded broadcaster into ‘mouthpiece for the president’

The man appointed by Donald Trump to head the US global media agency that oversees Voice of America (VOA) and other state-funded broadcasters has carried out a purge of career officials at the top levels of the organisation and installed Trump loyalists.

The action by Michael Pack appeared to confirm fears that Trump wanted to turn the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) into a loyal state broadcaster of the kind normally found in authoritarian societies.

Pack, a conservative film-maker and ally of right-wing ideologue Stephen Bannon, fired the heads of Middle East Broadcasting, Radio Free Asia, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and the Open Technology Fund according to CNN, which quoted an official as calling the dismissals the “Wednesday night massacre”. The head of VOA resigned after Pack won Senate confirmation.

Pack has installed Emily Newman, a former adviser to the Department of Homeland Security, as the new chief of staff, according to CNBC.

Newman issued an all-staff memo announcing the new hierarchy and telling them: “Until further notice, no actions are to be taken, and no external communications are to be made, without explicit approval” of the new executives.

“As feared, Michael Pack has confirmed he is on a political mission to destroy the USAGM’s independence and undermine its historic role,” Democratic Senator Robert Menendez said in a statement quoted by CNN.

“The wholesale firing of the agency’s network heads, and disbanding of corporate boards to install President Trump’s political allies is an egregious breach of this organisation’s history and mission from which it may never recover.”

Eliot Engel, the Democratic chair of House foreign affairs committee, had warned of a coming purge on Tuesday night.

“My fear is that USAGM’s role as an unbiased news organisation is in jeopardy under his leadership. USAGM’s mission is ‘to inform, engage, and connect people around the world in support of freedom and democracy’ – not to be a mouthpiece for the president in the run-up to an election,” Engel said in his statement.

Americans have had enough ...

... and are marching for justice in unprecedented numbers. In small towns and big cities across the country, thousands of people are giving voice to the grief and anger that generations of black Americans have suffered at the hands of the criminal justice system. Young and old, black and white, family and friends have joined together to say: enough.

The unconscionable examples of racism over the last weeks and months come as America's communities of color have been hit hardest by the coronavirus and catastrophic job losses. This is a perfect storm hitting black Americans. Meanwhile, the political leadership suggests that “when the looting starts, the shooting starts”. The president who promised to end the “American carnage” is in danger of making it worse.

At a time like this, an independent news organisation that fights for truth and holds power to account is not just optional. It is essential. Because we believe every one of us deserves equal access to fact-based news and analysis, we’ve decided to keep Guardian journalism free for all readers, regardless of where they live or what they can afford to pay. This is made possible thanks to the support we receive from readers across America in all 50 states.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/ ... -officials

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DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE OR DEPARTMENT OF TRUMP
Powerful US attorney who investigated Trump associates refuses to step down after Barr tries to push him out

By Erica Orden, Kara Scannell and Evan Perez, CNN

Updated 12:02 PM ET, Sat June 20, 2020

'Good for him': Bharara on US attorney's refusal to step down

Washington (CNN)

In a fast-escalating crisis Friday night, Attorney General William Barr tried to oust Geoffrey Berman, the powerful US attorney for the Southern District of New York who has investigated a number of associates of President Donald Trump, but Berman defied him by refusing to step down.

In an extraordinary statement sent roughly an hour after Barr said Berman was set to leave the office, Berman said he had learned of his purported exit from a press release.

"I have not resigned, and have no intention of resigning, my position, to which I was appointed by the Judges of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. I will step down when a presidentially appointed nominee is confirmed by the Senate," Berman said. "Until then, our investigations will move forward without delay or interruption."

The standoff opens up a fresh crisis at the Justice Department, places the leadership of the most prominent federal prosecutors office outside Washington in a precarious position and again raises questions about Barr's willingness to steer the department to suit Trump's political agenda.

Berman's rebuttal came about an hour after the Department of Justice announced Trump intends to nominate Jay Clayton, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, who has never been a prosecutor.

A Justice Department official told CNN that Berman was offered other positions at Justice, including the head of the civil division, where assistant Attorney General Jody Hunt abruptly announced his departure this week. Berman declined.

A second source with knowledge of the matter said Berman was asked to resign and refused. Barr asked Berman to resign in an in-person meeting in New York on Friday, the source said.

Berman, before walking into his office in downtown New York Saturday morning, told reporters, "I issued a statement last night, I have nothing to add to that this morning. I'm just here to do my job."

A late-night announcement

The timing of the move, announced after 9 p.m. ET, immediately raised questions about the circumstances regarding Berman's departure.

Any forced ouster of Berman is likely to draw scrutiny inside the US attorney's office and among career prosecutors. He has been the US attorney for Manhattan since 2018, and under his leadership, his office prosecuted Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen, is investigating top Trump confidante Rudy Giuliani and indicted the former New York mayor's associates Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman.

Tensions between the New York and Washington offices have grown with Berman and Barr butting heads over the handling of some cases, including the indictment of Turkish bank Halkbank.

Last fall, Justice Department officials discussed replacing Berman with Ed O'Callaghan, a senior official, but then prosecutors indicted the Giuliani associates, a move that appeared to extend Berman's tenure.

Trump and Barr have long taken issue with the office's handling of various cases, but people close to the office believe its string of extremely high-profile investigations -- including those of Cohen, Giuliani and Jeffrey Epstein -- may have deterred Justice officials from pushing out Berman because his exit would have been certain to cause an uproar and charges of political interference. For the last several months, however, largely due to the coronavirus pandemic, the office has had a relatively quiet period, and some believe Barr seized that opportunity to oust Berman.

Preet Bharara, a CNN senior legal analyst who was fired by Trump as US attorney for the Southern District shortly after Trump took office in 2017, told CNN's Don Lemon that the late-night announcement was a "highly irregular thing to do ... when there are all sorts of investigations swirling around."

"The President, his associates, there may be anger about the way that some of the prior investigations were conducted, with respect to his former lawyer Michael Cohen and others," he added.

Democrats on Capitol Hill immediately demanded answers.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said the "late Friday night dismissal reeks of potential corruption of the legal process. What is angering President Trump? A previous action by this U.S. Attorney or one that is ongoing?"

House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, a New York Democrat, said "America is right to expect the worst of Bill Barr, who has repeatedly interfered in criminal investigations on Trump's behalf," adding that he would invite Berman to testify.


Long-running feud with SDNY

Trump has frequently clashed with the leadership of the prosecutors' office in New York and bristled at their investigations.

The President has been weighing replacing Berman since at least the middle of 2018, two people familiar with the matter told CNN, and Trump made references in private to replacing him since at least the summer of 2018, they said -- only a few months after Berman assumed the role.

Trump has grown progressively more upset with the office since it began its investigation into Cohen, and believed its investigation into Giuliani was meant to damage him politically, one person said.

In 2018, Trump lashed out after federal agents in New York raided Cohen's office, home and hotel room as part of an investigation by federal prosecutors who were examining a hush-money scheme involving Trump and adult film star Stormy Daniels, calling the searches "an attack on our country." Cohen later pleaded guilty to eight counts, including campaign-finance violations, and implicated Trump.

Trump's former national security adviser John Bolton writes in his forthcoming book that in 2018, Trump offered to help Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan with a Justice Department investigation into a Turkish bank, Halkbank, with ties to Erdogan that was suspected of violating US Iran sanctions.

Trump, according to Bolton, told his Turkish counterpart that the Southern District prosecutors "were not his people, but were Obama people," and the problem would be fixed when they were replaced by Trump. At the time, Berman had already been installed in New York office. Berman and the Justice Department brought a case against Halkbank in October 2019.

Before Clayton was nominated to the SEC post by Trump, he was a corporate lawyer at Sullivan & Cromwell. If confirmed, Clayton would be the first non-prosecutor to lead SDNY.

Barr and Clayton have known each other for years, the Justice official said, and Clayton was planning to leave to go back to NY. He expressed interest in the SDNY job, the Justice official said, and Barr agreed.

Barr said Trump has appointed Craig Carpenito, currently the United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey, to serve as the acting United States attorney for the Southern District of New York until Clayton is confirmed. Carpenito will begin the role on July 3.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/19/politics ... index.html

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