The resolution to a standoff between Geoffrey Berman, who has overseen investigations of President Donald Trump’s allies, and Attorney General William Barr may be contained in an obscure 1979 memo by the Justice Department that Barr heads.
The controversy has created turmoil in what may be the most important federal prosecutor’s office in the U.S., including the specter of two people simultaneously claiming to hold the top job while indicted defendants attempt to have charges against them thrown out as illegitimate.
