Jeremy Stahl is a senior editor here at Slate, covers the Department of Justice,

and he spends a lot of his time thinking about one specific corner of the justice system,

the Southern District of New York, the SDNY.

The most important thing to know about SDNY is that it is historically known for its independence.

The SDNY is so independent that a prosecutor, President Clinton, appointed to this office,

ended up investigating him.

And it's even got a nickname the Sovereign District of New York, which comes from the fact that

it considers itself almost an independent entity from the Department of Justice, whereas every other

U.S. Attorney's Office does not. I think it's fair to say that this independent streak, it hasn't

been appreciated by President Trump or the current

attorney general. That became clear this past weekend as Jeffrey Berman, who'd been the lead

prosecutor at the SDNY, was dismissed in a confusing two-day episode. So it's interesting.

The people who were hoping and seeking to maintain the independence

of this office, some of them were disappointed with Jeffrey Berman's appointment.

Jeffrey Berman did the very unusual step of interviewing personally with Donald Trump for this

position when he first got this job. And that was seen as a no-no.

That was seen as that was a no-no.

This was bad form for the president and the prosecutor.

That was basically an unprecedented move by the president.

So the fact that he tried to very early on speak to this guy and interview this guy

and make sure he was part of the team, possibly. That was very unusual.

It's funny because Jeffrey Berman replaced Preet Barara, who had led the office and famously left in this kind of suspicious cloud, a lot of confusion back and forth about whether he was fired or resigned. And now,

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