The Senate Judiciary Committee notified Attorney General Merrick Garland that it will investigate claims that the Department of Justice under the Trump administration sought to interfere politically with the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office.
The announcement cites reports on former U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman’s new book, set for release on Tuesday, detailing how he allegedly resisted pressure from top officials to prosecute critics of Donald Trump and protect the former president’s allies.
EX-US ATTORNEY WAS PRESSURED TO PROSECUTE JOHN KERRY: BOOK
In a letter to Garland sent Monday and obtained by the Washington Examiner, Chairman Dick Durbin (D-IL) wrote that if found to be true, these claims could prove “multiple instances of political interference in the Department’s investigative and prosecutorial decisions.”
Durbin requested on behalf of the committee five groups of materials, including all documents and communications between anyone at the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office and officials in the U.S. Office of the Attorney General and Deputy General and/or the Criminal Division referring to prosecuting former President Barack Obama’s White House counsel Gregory Craig.
The committee wants materials presented no later than Oct. 3.
In his book, Berman states that Craig was prosecuted without grounds before the 2018 midterm elections for allegedly violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Edward O’Callaghan asked Berman’s deputy to prosecute Craig, but Berman denied the request, he claimed in his book.
“Mr. Berman claims that Department officials then ‘peddled’ the investigation to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, which indicted and tried Craig — who was acquitted by a jury in fewer than five hours,” the letter stated.
In addition, Berman says in his book that the DOJ under Trump pressured his office to remove reference to the former president from the document charging his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen with campaign finance crimes and lying to Congress. Later, after Cohen was convicted, administrators attempted to remove any mention of then-Attorney General William Barr trying to reverse the conviction and end related inquiries.
He also writes about how the DOJ pressed his office to prosecute former Secretary of State John Kerry over activity surrounding the Iran nuclear deal Kerry helped negotiate and Trump later abandoned.
Durbin requests information about the Cohen and Kerry matters as well.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Berman volunteered for the Trump campaign in 2016 and transition before serving as a U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York under the former president for over two years.
Despite being ousted by Barr, Berman details in his book how he believes he dodged the “worst of the attempted interference” from Trump and his allies. After Berman opened several investigations into Trump’s allies, Barr terminated Berman from his position in June 2020.
