Name: “Barr’s Guiding Principle Was to Protect Trump”: With Barr Out, New York Prosecutors Are Freer to Zero In On the President
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“Barr’s Guiding Principle Was to Protect Trump”: With Barr Out, New York Prosecutors Are Freer to Zero In On the President

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Bill Barr will not be missed by most of the hundreds of nonpartisan career prosecutors inside the Department of Justice. Least of all, though, by the lawyers working for the Southern District of New York, whose jurisdiction covers most of Donald Trump’s hometown—and whose continuing probes of the president’s associates, including an investigation of Rudy Giuliani, are far less likely to be squashed. “Everything depends on the facts and witnesses in those cases,” a former senior SDNY official says. “But certainly they are more likely to proceed without Barr in there, who was just a disgrace. In every way.”&nbsp;Barr—whose departure from the office of attorney general was on Monday after taking a Twitter from Trump—politicized nearly every corner of the Justice Department. His most prominent, and most effective, interference took place in Washington, whether he was preemptively and misleadingly or in the cases against Michael Flynn and Roger Stone. But his attempts to meddle in New York were unrelenting, an SDNY insider says—and the stakes were higher because the investigations threatened to come closer to the president.&nbsp;Only a few of Barr’s moves to mess with SDNY cases have become public so far. The most glaring known episode was plenty bad. This past spring, after dodging impeachment, Trump a series of inspectors general. The SDNY had already sent the president’s previous personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, , and was now asking questions about his current one, Giuliani. One Friday in June, Barr abruptly Geoffrey Berman, the head of the Southern District, to a meeting at the Pierre hotel. Barr suggested—wink, wink—that Berman accept a transfer or a new job, so that a New Jersey of Trump’s could be installed as U.S. attorney. When that nudge went nowhere, Barr told Berman that if he didn’t give up the job voluntarily, he would be fired. Berman stood firm. That night Barr issued a claiming Berman had quit. Not true, Berman , and he wasn’t going anywhere. The next day Barr Trump had dismissed Berman and that Berman’s chief deputy, Audrey Strauss, would be taking over at SDNY.Strauss has staunchly the office’s independence. Yet Barr’s exit was eagerly anticipated at SDNY, even if he had waited until January 20 to leave, and even if Biden has yet to unveil his own nominee for attorney general. The conventional wisdom is that Biden’s A.G. will face fraught choices about whether to pursue Trump–connected cases. The solution should actually be fairly simple: leave it to the prosecutors in the field to handle. “For four years we’ve had an administration where politics was so injected into DOJ,” says Mimi Rocah, a Southern District alumnus and the district attorney-elect for Westchester County, just north of the city. “The only way out of that is to stop making decisions with political concerns in mind.”“Look, whoever comes in as A.G., things are gonna change pretty damn quickly,” a former top New York federal prosecutor says. “A new leader will be half the battle in restoring the integrity of the department.”&nbsp;Southern District veterans presume that the office has evaluated Trump–related cases on their merits all along—but they uniformly expect those merits to get a much fuller hearing soon. “I have no doubt that facts have driven the office’s investigations and its decisions the past four years,” says Glen Kopp, whose work as an assistant U.S. attorney at SDNY included a wide variety of fraud and money-laundering cases. “But if there are Trump cases, is it more likely they go forward? Yeah. And I think SDNY’s confidence in leadership at the top levels of Main Justice backing up whatever they do will change.”Even with Barr gone, the intrigue isn’t quite finished. Strauss may well be asked to stay on temporarily, but her term as interim head of SDNY is due to four days before inauguration day, creating a possible window for White House mischief. “It’s hard to do a lot of damage in a short period of time on a particular case,” the former top prosecutor says. “What are they gonna do—shut down an investigation that could be reinitiated in three weeks?” More plausible is that Barr’s replacement, Jeffrey Rosen, proves even more willing to wave through. Giuliani could receive a get-out-of-jail-free card before being charged with any crimes. (Giuliani’s own lawyer maintains that the former mayor has nothing to worry about because he hasn’t done anything wrong.) For now, though, Southern District lawyers are exhaling. “Barr’s guiding principle was to protect Trump,” Rocah says. “Having that not hanging over prosecutors is a good thing.”More Great Stories From Vanity Fair&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;— Mary Trump Thinks Her Uncle’s Are Just Beginning— There’s a Who Don’t Believe It’s Real— Doug Band: Confessions of a — Will Spring for a Postpresidential Fox Gig?— Ivanka Desperately Tries to on Her Way Out— After Remaking CNN and Antagonizing Trump, — With , Is the FDA Ready to Inspect Where They’re Made?— From the Archive: Probing the of Randy Quaid and His Wife, Evi— Not a subscriber? to receive full access to VF.com and the complete online archive now.The freshest-and most essential-updates from Washington, Wall Street, and Silicon Valley.

Bill Barr will not be missed by most of the hundreds of nonpartisan career prosecutors inside the Department of Justice. Least of all, though, by the lawyers working for the Southern District of New York, whose jurisdiction covers most of Donald Trump’s hometown—and whose continuing probes of the president’s associates, including an investigation of Rudy Giuliani, are far less likely to be squashed. “Everything depends on the facts and witnesses in those cases,” a former senior SDNY official says. “But certainly they are more likely to proceed without Barr in there, who was just a disgrace....

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Chris Smith started writing about gadgets as a hobby, and before he knew it he was sharing his views on tech stuff with readers around the world. Whenever he's not writing about gadgets he miserably fails to stay away from them, although he desperately tries. But that's not necessarily a bad thing.

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Vanity Fair is a monthly magazine of popular culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast in the United States.  The first version of Vanity Fair was published from 1913 to 1936. The imprint was revived in 1983 and currently includes five international editions of the magazine. As of 2018, the Editor-in-Chief is Radhika Jones.

“Barr’s Guiding Principle Was to Protect Trump”: With Barr Out, New York Prosecutors Are Freer to Zero In On the President

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