article main image
Prosecutor fired by Barr to testify before House committee in closed-door session next weekBy CNN

Fired US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey Berman is scheduled to appear behind closed doors before the House Judiciary Committee next week, a congressional aide told CNN.

Berman's expected appearance on July 9 comes after two prosecutors -- including a member of former special counsel Robert Mueller's team -- testified publicly before the committee last month to accuse Attorney General William Barr of politicizing the Justice Department's investigations and recommending a lighter sentence for Roger Stone due to his friendship with President Donald Trump.

Berman was fired last month as the US attorney in New York's Southern District after he initially resisted Barr's request for him to resign. Berman publicly said he would only leave if a Senate-confirmed replacement was named, prompting Barr and Trump to fire him.

Barr's critics decried the effort to push Berman out of the prosecutor's office that has prosecuted one of Trump's lawyers, is investigating another and has probed the activities of the President himself.

Berman will appear before the Judiciary Committee for a transcribed interview, which will be limited to the events surrounding Berman's firing, including his conversations with Barr, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Barr is scheduled to testify before the Judiciary panel on July 28, in a hearing where Democrats are likely to press him on Berman's firing, his moves to undercut the Mueller investigation and his involvement in the forceful removal of protesters near the White House last month.

Last month's hearing sparked calls for the House to begin impeachment proceedings against Barr, though Speaker Nancy Pelosi poured cold water on the notion, citing the election in November. At that hearing, Aaron Zelinsky, who took the case against Roger Stone to trial, accused the Justice Department of pressuring the acting US Attorney for the District of Columbia to recommend a lesser sentence for Stone because of his political connection to Trump. And John Elias, a career official in the Antitrust Division, accused Barr of pushing for investigations into the cannabis company mergers because of his personal distaste for the marijuana industry.

After Berman's firing, House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, a New York Democrat, said he would try to bring him in to testify about the events surrounding his removal.

"If this had been an isolated incident -- if the attorney general had simply misjudged the situation and thought that Mr. Berman would go quietly -- then we might chalk up this episode to simple miscommunication and incompetence. But make no mistake: this was not an isolated incident," Nadler said at last month's hearing.

Nadler's committee is also looking into the firing of Joseph Brown, the US attorney for the Eastern District of Texas, over his handling of an investigation into Walmart.