The cover-up continues as Trump tries to disrupt what are continuing investigations into a number of crimes that might ultimately involve IMPOTUS*. The firing of US Attorney Geoffrey Berman may have been planned to happen with a confluence of Juneteenth and possible discord, only to be exposed with the shift in dates.
Today will be another interesting one as a few protest groups have promised to be in Tulsa.
Al Sharpton, a veteran civil rights activist and baptist preacher who spoke at Floyd’s funeral service, delivered a speech at a Juneteenth celebration in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where in 1921 a racist white mob destroyed the “Black Wall Street” community. Donald Trump had initially planned a campaign rally in Tulsa for 19 June but later rescheduled to Saturday after learning about the significance of the holiday.
“Juneteenth is both a celebration and a reminder, a commemoration,” he told a gathered crowd. “It reminds us that it took almost three years after the signing of the emancipation proclamation for people in Texas to even know that slavery was over.”
“So it is only proper for me to be here to show everyone how far we have come and how far we have yet to go,” he went on. “We must understand the litany of pain that Black Americans have suffered.”
www.theguardian.com/...
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.
So strange that Trump keeps trying to “fire” people without understanding the bureaucratic details of succession and replacement according to protocols.