Top federal prosecutor in Manhattan leaves office, ending battle with Barr

NEW YORK, NY - JULY 08: US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey Berman announces charges against Jeffery Epstein on July 8, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)

The top federal prosecutor in Manhattan said in a statement on Saturday that he was leaving the office effectively immediately now that Attorney General William Barr has made the "decision to respect the normal operation of law."

The departure of Geoffrey Berman capped an approximately 24-hour period in which Barr claimed that Berman had resigned, but Berman denied it, saying media reports were the first he'd heard of it.

Berman had been overseeing investigations of Trump's allies.

Barr then told Berman in a letter that President Donald Trump had fired him from the Southern District of New York, only to have Trump say on Saturday afternoon that he "was not involved."

"Attorney General Barr is working on that," Trump said on Saturday outside the White House. "That's his department, not my department. But we have a very capable attorney general so that's really up to him. I'm not involved."

A couple hours later, Berman released this statement:

“In light of A. G. Barr’s decision to respect the normal operation of law and have Deputy U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss become Acting U.S. Attorney, I will be leaving the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, effective immediately.”