Barr fires Berman. Berman fires back.

Jeez, how is anyone supposed to get any sleep anymore?? DC protestors are tearing down statues, Tulsa is a ticking time bomb and AG Barr casually announced by press release that the Manhattan US Attorney is resigning without telling the Manhattan US Attorney.

I follow Preet Bharara and Dan Goldman on Twitter. They seem to know something about the history of firing US Attorneys. They say this is highly unusual in that Barr did not put the deputy US Attorney in charge until the Senate could confirm a replacement. Instead, Barr is hiring some guy from the SEC to take over. That indicates that the rest of the US Attorneys office in Manhattan are likely not sympathetic to Barr.

Now, why would they do that? Unfortunately, there has been so much chaos that we’ve lost track of babies in cages and other outrageous things. But it looks like the Manhattan US Attorney’s office was still investigating campaign finance violations in connection with Rudy Giuliani and who knows what else.

By the way, did anyone catch that parts of the Mueller Report were unredacted yesterday and, um, yeah, Trump actually did collude with the Russians and was onboard with the Wikileaks actions.

Is it possible that Trump knew of all this stuff in advance and maybe even more by Berman’s office and decided to stage what looks like a bloodbath in Tulsa as a distraction? Is the USSC going fo allow us to get our hands on Trump’s tax returns? Can someone please tell us what’s really going on??

Meanwhile, back in Manhattan, Berman is refusing to resign. He says he’s not going until the senate confirms his replacement. I guess that could be done quickly if that’s what Mitch McConnell wants to do. But is that what Mitch McConnell wants to do? To shine a light on the Republican Senate appearing to help Donald Trump obstruct justice? In an election year?

But how can Berman refuse to resign after he’s been fired? Is that possible? In this case, it probably is:

Unlike many other U.S. attorneys, Berman is almost uniquely positioned to resist efforts to oust him, at least for a while. U.S. attorneys are typically nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate, but in Berman’s case he was appointed to the job by the federal court in his district, and there is some legal precedent indicating that only the court, not the Justice Department, can remove him until a replacement is confirmed by the Senate.

How would Barr not know this? What about Berman’s subordinates? Why did Preet Bharara decide to take THIS week off from podcasting??

Will it move anyone left in the cult of Trump? It looks like we might *finally* be seeing signs that Trump’s approval is slipping in the polls to a critical level. He’s lost independents and fewer Republicans strongly approve of his performance. So, he has to dominate Tulsa this weekend to show what a tough guy he is. Yeah, just barge into someone else’s city, throw the mayor around, infect 19,000 of your closest droogs, call out the national guard to shoot peaceful protestors, declare victory and go home.

It’s going to be a tense weekend, people. Hold hands, look both ways before crossing the street, look out for one another.