Geoffrey Berman facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Geoffrey Berman
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| United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York | |
| In office January 5, 2018 – June 20, 2020 Acting: January 5, 2018 – April 25, 2018 |
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| President | Donald Trump |
| Preceded by | Joon Kim (acting) |
| Succeeded by | Audrey Strauss |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Geoffrey Steven Berman
September 12, 1959 Trenton, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse | Joanne Schwartz |
| Relatives | Michael J. Berman |
| Residences | New York, New York, U.S. |
| Education | University of Pennsylvania (BA, BS) Stanford University (JD) |
Geoffrey Steven Berman (born September 12, 1959) is an American attorney who served as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 2018 to 2020. He is the Global Chair of the litigation department at the law firm Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson.
Berman served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1990 to 1994. In January 2018, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Berman's appointment as interim U.S. Attorney for a statutory period of 120 days. On April 25, 2018, the judges of the Southern District of New York, pursuant to , unanimously appointed Berman U.S. Attorney for an indeterminate term that extended "until the vacancy is filled", which may or may not include the appointment of a presidential nominee approved by the Senate.
On June 19, 2020, Attorney General William Barr announced in a press release that Berman was "stepping down" effective July 3 and that Jay Clayton, the chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, would be nominated as his replacement. Hours later, Berman stated that he had not resigned and would not resign until "a presidentially appointed nominee is confirmed by the Senate." At the time that Trump and Barr sought his ouster, Berman was reportedly investigating Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani for alleged crimes relating to his activities in Ukraine. On June 20, Barr told Berman that he had been fired by Trump at Barr's request and that the deputy U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss would serve as acting U.S. Attorney. Berman then agreed to resign immediately.
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Early life
Geoffrey Steven Berman was born in Trenton, New Jersey, the son of Marie (Edelman) and Ronald Berman, a developer of Trenton real estate properties. He graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and a Bachelor of Science in economics from the Wharton School in 1981. He then studied law at Stanford Law School, where he obtained a Juris Doctor in 1984. During law school, he was the Note Editor of the Stanford Law Review.
Career
Berman began his career as a clerk for Judge Leonard I. Garth of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. From 1987 to 1990 he served as an associate to independent counsel Lawrence Walsh during the Iran–Contra affair investigation. There, he was part of a team that prosecuted former CIA employee Thomas G. Clines for tax fraud.
Assistant United States Attorney (1990–1994)
Berman served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1990 to 1994. He worked on several tax and fraud cases as a prosecutor, including the Masters of Deception computer hacking case.
Private practice (1994–2018)
Berman was subsequently engaged by Mudge Rose and Latham & Watkins, where he worked as a monitor to rid the New York Carpenter’s Union of the influence of organized crime. From 1994 to 1997, Berman represented, pro bono, Maureen and Richard Kanka, defending the constitutionality of Megan’s Law in state and federal litigation. He married Joanne Karen Schwartz on August 20, 1994.
Berman is a resident of New York, where he previously lived from 1984 to 2002. He then moved to Princeton, New Jersey, where he lived for 14 years. Berman was a shareholder at Greenberg Traurig, as was Rudy Giuliani. It was reported that Giuliani supported Berman for U.S. Attorney in New Jersey, but that Giuliani supported a different candidate for U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
Berman represented Philip Kwon, the deputy general counsel at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey during the Bridgegate trial. He denied that Kwon was ever told the lane closures were intended to punish anyone.
United States Attorney (2018–2020)
On January 3, 2018, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Berman's appointment as U.S. Attorney, along with 16 other former prosecutors to various offices around the country on an interim basis until the Senate could confirm them.
The Trump administration never nominated Berman or most of the other interim appointments.
2020 ouster
In June 2020, CNN reported that Trump had been thinking about removing Berman from his position for two years.
In a late-night news release on June 19, 2020, Attorney General William Barr announced that Berman would step down from his position. He said that Trump intended to nominate Jay Clayton, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, to take Berman's place as the Manhattan U.S. attorney, and that Trump, on his recommendation, had appointed Craig Carpenito, the U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey, to serve as the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, effective July 3, 2020, while the Senate takes up Clayton's nomination.
Shortly after Barr's announcement, Berman denied having resigned and said that he had "no intention of resigning," saying that he was appointed by a court, not the president, and that he would remain in office until the Senate confirmed a replacement.
On June 20, Barr told Berman that he had been fired by Trump at Barr's request and that the deputy U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss would serve as acting U.S. Attorney. Berman then agreed to resign immediately.
Return to private life
In December 2020, Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson announced that Berman was joining the firm to head its white-collar defense, regulatory enforcement and investigations practice.
In September 2022, Berman published a memoir, Holding the Line: Inside the Nation’s Preeminent US Attorney’s Office and its Battle with the Trump Justice Department. In it he describes numerous instances in which he says the Justice Department took politically motivated actions, such as suppressing investigations into Trump's allies or demanding investigations into people considered Trump's enemies. As one example, he says that in September 2018 a senior Justice Department official told Berman's deputy that because the Southern District had pursued prosecution of two Trump loyalists, the office should issue charges against a prominent Democratic lawyer "to even things out", and should do so before Election Day. The Senate Judiciary Committee announced plans to investigate Berman's allegations that the Justice Department during the Trump administration made politically influenced decisions to initiate criminal investigations against some people and block them against others.
See also
- List of Jewish American jurists
