President Donald Trump is getting involved personally in the search to fill United States attorney slots in New York City — people who may have to prosecute wrongdoings at Trump Tower.
Attorneys Geoffrey Berman and Ed McNally met with Trump to discuss the openings, according to Politico. McNally was interviewed for consideration to be U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, while Berman was interviewed for consideration to be U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York — the same position once held by Preet Bharara, who was abruptly fired in March under controversial circumstances.
Trump's specific interest in the New York spots has ethics experts worried. "That is a district where there may be cases or investigations concerning the president and his family and business associates and he might have interests in them," Noah Bookbinder, executive director of CREW and former federal corruption prosecutor under Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, told Salon. "And that raises an additional level of concern as to whether he is trying to potentially curry favor with someone who might be making decisions on investigations or cases that matter to him."
"We don't know if that's true, but there is a possibility of that, but this would be a problem even without that issue," he added, noting that legally speaking, Trump can technically interview candidates.
Bookbinder's view seems to be shared by Bharara himself.
"To be very blunt, these three jurisdictions will have authority to bring indictments over the ongoing special counsel investigation into Trump campaign collusion with the Russians and potential obstruction of justice by the president of the United States," Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. told Politico on Thursday. "For him to be interviewing candidates for that prosecutor who may in turn consider whether to bring indictments involving him and his administration seems to smack of political interference."
Bookbinder echoed this sentiment, pointing out that there is historical precedent for concern about Trump interviewing U.S. attorney candidates.
"Even putting aside issues of investigations of the president, there is a longstanding tradition that there is some space between the president and politics and United States attorneys who are supposed to be making these decisions based on justice and law and not on politics," Bookbinder told Salon. "We've seen times in the later days of the Bush administration, under Attorney General Gonzalez, Gonzalez and to a lesser extent the president got in trouble because attorneys were fired for what were perceived as political reasons, that is not sharing the political priorities of the president."
McNally, the possible candidate for the Eastern District, works for the law firm Kasowitz Benson Torres. The firm's lead attorney, Marc Kasowitz, represented Trump as an outside attorney until July. During that time, he once bragged to colleagues and friends that he was responsible for Bharara's firing, claiming to have told Trump, "This guy is going to get you."
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