The president has that authority, evidently.
President Trump on Saturday personally fired the United States Attorney in Manhattan, Geoffrey S. Berman, whose office has pursued one case after another that has rankled the president and his allies, putting his former personal lawyer in prison and investigating his current one.
It was the culmination of an extraordinary clash after years of tension between the White House and New York federal prosecutors.
In a statement, Attorney General William P. Barr said Mr. Berman, who had refused to step down from his position on Friday night, had “chosen public spectacle over public service.”
“Because you have declared that you have no intention of resigning, I have asked the President to remove you as of today, and he has done so,” the statement read. Mr. Barr said Mr. Berman’s top deputy, Audrey Strauss, would become the acting United States Attorney.