Appearing on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Tuesday morning, former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey Bermanrevealed that orders came down from Donald Trump’s Department of Justice to investigate his enemies within hours of the former president launching an attack on his target on Twitter.
Case in point, he told the Morning Joe panel, was former Secretary of State John Kerry.
“So was it ever verbal to you from Bill Barr or some deputy attorney general under Bill Barr, hey, let’s take a look at John Kerry,” Morning Joe regular Mike Barnicle asked.
“Let me tell you what happened with John Kerry,” Berman replied with a smirk. “President Trump attacks John Kerry in two tweets saying that Kerry engaged in possible illegal conversations with Iranian officials regarding the Iran nuclear deal. The very next day, the Trump Justice Department refers to the Southern District of New York the John Kerry criminal case.”
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“Two tweets from the president and the John Kerry criminal case becomes a priority for the Department of Justice,” he added for emphasis.
“When you say referred, how did they refer it, by paper, by phone call, how did they do it?” Barnicle pressed.
“Initially, it was a meeting at the National Security Division within the Department of Justice followed up by, you know, phone calls,” he elaborated. “And the statute they wanted us to use was enacted in 1799 and had never been successfully prosecuted. So for about 220 years, this criminal statute had been on the books, and not a single conviction, so we investigated it and John Kerry was entirely innocent, and but yet the Justice Department pushed us and pushed us and pushed us and when I declined, Bill Barr did not take no for an answer. He referred the case to another district and, fortunately, that district didn’t charge John Kerry either.”
Watch the video below or at this link.