Name: McConnell is hoping to maintain his 'political power' by 'cutting his losses' with Trump now: columnist
Brand: rawstory.com
SKU: rawstory-com-158
Availability: OnlineOnly

critic

McConnell is hoping to maintain his 'political power' by 'cutting his losses' with Trump now: columnist

preview

--Report typos and corrections to: .Speaking to MSNBC's Rachel Maddow on Monday evening, hours before his book was scheduled to drop, Geoffrey Berman sounded the alarm on a wide-reaching ethics scandal that reaches all the way to the top of the Justice Department and to former President Donald Trump. This is just another in the growing list of illegal or unethical behavior by Trump's DOJ being uncovered by investigations and whistleblowers willing to come forward.Berman explained one of the main reasons he stayed in his position as long as he did: If Bill Barr got rid of him, there wouldn't be anyone left who could be trusted to "hold the line." "So, I was very noisy. I told the entire country what I thought Barr was doing and how he crossed the line," Berman said about being shoved out at the time. "And I think because of that very noisy exit, as you said, Audrey Strauss took over as acting U.S. Attorney, and she's a person of the highest integrity. And an icon of the New York Bar."Berman also appeared before Congress to sound the alarm at the time and talked to the ethics department to ask what he could say publicly. He said they shut him up, which he said he found "frustrating" because he couldn't tell the whole story. His new book has only recently been vetted and approved by the DOJ. RELATED: He went on to say that he isn't certain whether or not something illegal happened. Legal analysts will likely take up that mantle and do the research. "But I can tell you, it violated all the norms and traditions of the Department of Justice, which is supposed to be independent from politics," said Berman. "Trump turned the department into his own personal law firm. He put in people who would do his bidding. And they would, you know, target Trump's political enemies and assist Trump's friends. And it was a disgrace. And that's what I kind of detail in the book. Several instances of that."During his tenure, Berman was close to indicting Steve Bannon for the "We Build the Wall" case. Trump ultimately pardoned Bannon and ended the federal probe. The New York state courts have taken up that case and Bannon has been indicted. The other case involves Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman and the Ukraine investigation. The book, "Holding the Line," will be available for purchase Tuesday. ALSO IN THE NEWS: See the interview below or at this link.On Monday, The Daily Beast that Michael Flynn, former President Donald Trump's short-lived first National Security Adviser and notorious conspiracy theorist, was just elected to a local GOP leadership position in Sarasota, Florida."On Thursday evening, Flynn was one of several dozen new members of the local Republican executive committee elected by voice vote at the Morgan Family Community Center in North Port, Florida," reported Michael Daly. "As if that were not scary enough, they also elected James Hoel, a local leader of the Proud Boys.""Hoel and fellow Proud Boy Nicholas Radovich were active in the Aug. 23 Sarasota County School Board election that saw a longstanding 3-2 liberal majority become a 4-1 conspiracy minority," noted the report. "Radovich showed up at the victory party in a Proud Boys hat and T-shirt and flashed a white power sign during a group picture. The one re-elected incumbent conservative, Bridget Ziegler, subsequently denounced the Proud Boys as a 'menace.'"Flynn, who was reportedly pushed to run by local GOP activist Conni Brunni, will also get to work as a poll watcher in upcoming elections, according to the report: "I also am volunteering to be a poll watcher in the upcoming elections, particularly in this county, in the state of Florida," he said on Steve Bannon's podcast. This comes after it was revealed that Miami-Dade County in south Florida allowed a Proud Boy to in the recent primary.Flynn previously served as a general and head of the Defense Intelligence Agency before joining the Trump administration. He was swiftly fired as National Security Adviser and later prosecuted for lying to DOJ officials about his contacts with the Russian foreign minister. He was subsequently given a pardon by Trump.ALSO IN THE NEWS: Since then, he has become a prominent activist in the QAnon conspiracy movement, which holds that Trump is secretly fighting to save America from a shadowy group of pedophile cannibals who control the nation behind the scenes. At one of their gatherings, he even the violent overthrow of the U.S. government by the military, similar to the coup that occurred in Myanmar, although he later tried to deny he had supported this idea when faced with press scrutiny.Former Barack Obama counsel Gregory Craig was indicted by Donald Trump's Justice Department, and according to a new book by a former prosecutor at the Southern District of New York, the case was all part of a partisan plot ahead of the election. The alleged directive came straight from the top: Donald Trump. MSNBC's Rachel Maddow got a copy of the book, wich begins with Geoffrey Berman saying that he was told that as a Republican he needed to "take one for the team" and do the indictments against Democrats to "even the score.""My lead deputy, Robert Khuzami, recieved an urgent phone call from a top official at the U.S. Department of Justice," Berman's book begins. "The [2018] midterm elections were less than two months away. The results would determine not just which party would control the House and Senate, but also if the next two years of the Trump presidency would be plagued by investigations. He spoke with a high-level Trump political appointee at the Justice Department. His message was unambiguous. It was time for me, Geoffrey Berman, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and lifelong Republican, it was time for me to take one for the home team."Khuzami came into Berman's office, "You're not going to believe the conversation I just had with , before sharing the details. The top leadership at DOJ wanted me to bring criminal charges against a private attorney who had once been President Barack Obama's White House counsel and they wanted me to bring those charges before Election Day.""You have got to be f'ing kidding me," Berman recalled saying. "I wish," he said, "but no."He said there was no evidence of any law that he'd broken. O'Callaghan kept reminding Khuzami that the SDNY had already prosecuted two high-profile Trump loyalists: Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY) and former Trump fixer Michael Cohen. "It's time for you guys to even things out," O'Callaghan said. Berman refused. He was then fired — and fired loudly. Now he's speaking out, saying that Bill Barr, Jeffrey Rosen, Ed O'Callaghan and Rich Donoghue all used the Justice Department to fight Trump opponents or anyone even associated with Democrats. The book goes on and on about ethical breaches, illegal behavior and details that could end in disbarring several lawyers. Monday evening, the Senate Judiciary Committee announced that it would be conducting a hearing into the accusations included in the Berman book. Berman told Maddow that he's certain that there will be documents to prove what was done. ALSO IN THE NEWS: See the report on Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin's (D-IL) .&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Copyright © 2022 Raw Story Media, Inc. PO Box 21050, Washington, D.C. 20009 | | | For corrections or concerns, please email corrections@rawstory.com. | {{ post.roar_specific_data.api_data.analytics }}

--Report typos and corrections to: .Speaking to MSNBC's Rachel Maddow on Monday evening, hours before his book was scheduled to drop, Geoffrey Berman sounded the alarm on a wide-reaching ethics scandal that reaches all the way to the top of the Justice Department and to former President Donald Trump. This is just another in the growing list of illegal or unethical behavior by Trump's DOJ being uncovered by investigations and whistleblowers willing to come forward.Berman explained one of the main reasons he stayed in his position as long as he did: If Bill Barr got rid of him, there wouldn't...

public

Tom Boggioni

The Raw Story (also stylized as RawStory) is an American online tabloid founded in 2004 by John K. Byrne. It covers current national and international political events and publishes its own editorials which tend to advocate for progressive positions. The Raw Story is a news site, bringing attention to stories that it sees as downplayed or ignored by other media outlets.

McConnell is hoping to maintain his 'political power' by 'cutting his losses' with Trump now: columnist

No article scores yet.

CRITIC REVIEWS

PUBLIC REVIEWS