House Intelligence Chair Adam Schiff said Sunday he hopes the ousted U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York testifies before Congress, saying his removal revealed a mismanagement of the Justice Department.
U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman stepped down from his position Saturday after getting into a public stand-off with Attorney General William Barr, who had previously stated that Berman had resigned, to Berman’s apparent surprise. Barr’s call for his departure was seen as a major interference in the prosecutor’s office.
Barr did not give a reason for Berman’s removal, but many felt it sent a sign that President Donald Trump would not hesitate to purge those who weren’t totally loyal to him. Berman’s office has investigated Trump and his associates.
Schiff (D-Calif.) said Sunday: “I certainly hope that [Berman] will come and testify before Congress.”
It’s “the most disastrous management of the Justice Department in modern memory,” Schiff told host Chuck Todd on NBC’s “Meet The Press.” “And like so much of what we have seen in this administration, it doesn’t come as a surprise anymore, but yet it’s completely demoralizing to the people in the department and dangerous to the rule of law.”
House Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler has already announced his intention to investigate the matter, but the New York Democrat dismissed the idea of launching an impeachment investigation of Barr, saying it would be a “waste of time” due to the Republican majority in the Senate.