Top Manhattan prosecutor leaves job after standoff with Barr

(AP) — The extraordinary standoff between Attorney General William Barr and the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan has ended.

The prosecutor, Geoffrey Berman, stepped down Saturday after Barr agreed that his deputy could replace him.

Barr said earlier in the day that President Donald Trump agreed to remove Berman, but the prosecutor remained working. Trump added to the confusion by telling reporters Saturday that the decision “was all up to the attorney general.”

The powerful prosecutor in the Southern District of New York had been overseeing investigations of Trump’s allies. Late Friday, Barr announced that Berman had resigned, but Berman denied it.