Stuart Gerson on Barr’s Attempt to Fire Berman
This was originally published in the Washington Post, and was written by Checks & Balances co-founder Stuart Gerson.
In the crisis at Justice, impartial rule of law is on the line
Late Friday, Attorney General William P. Barr announced the removal of the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. That U.S. attorney immediately made his own announcement that he was not going anywhere. Hanging in the balance of this conflict is nothing less than the Justice Department’s commitment to equal treatment before the law.
In late spring of 1972, I was an assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. My certificate of appointment was signed by Attorney General John N. Mitchell and his deputy, Richard G. Kleindienst, who would go on to become President Richard Nixon’s next attorney general, days before five of the White House “plumbers” were arrested in the Watergate break-in.