Why Trump Fired US Attorney Berman

FEATURING BETH ROTMAN – In 1973 President Richard Nixon’s government ordered the US Attorney General to fire the special prosecutor investigating him. When that didn’t work and the Attorney General resigned and then his deputy also resigned, and finally the third in command at the DOJ conducted the firing that Nixon wanted. That series of events, playing out on a single Saturday came to be known as the Saturday night massacre. Just days ago the Trump administration attempted to carry out what many are now calling a “Friday night massacre.”

On Friday, Attorney General William Barr announced US Attorney Geoffrey Berman was stepping down. Berman said he was doing no such thing. So Barr told him the President fired him, but Trump said he was not involved. Berman had investigated many of Trump’s associates and was in the middle of investigating Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani when he was fired.

Beth Rotman, Money in Politics & Ethics Program Director for Common Cause.