College and Wharton grad Geoffrey Berman joins other Penn grads appointed by the Trump administration

The United States attorney general appointed 1981 College and Wharton graduate Geoffrey Berman to become a federal prosecutor in New York. 

Berman will join the many other Penn graduates who have been selected to serve in the Trump administration, such as 2004 Wharton graduate Ivanka Trump, who works as the assistant to the president, 1987 College graduate Jon Huntsman, Jr. who serves as the United States ambassador to Russia, and 1986 Wharton graduate Rod Rosenstein, who is the U.S. deputy attorney general, among many others.

Berman was one of the 17 lawyers selected to be interim U.S. attorneys by the Trump administration, as reported in a Jan. 3 press release by the Department of Justice.

If the Senate confirms him, Berman will “helm one of the top federal prosecutor positions in the country" as the interim U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, according to Business Insider.  According to Newsweek, while Berman may serve at a post that could oversee investigations of Trump — including those pertaining to Russia — Berman himself is a "politically connected New York City lawyer" who supported Trump's election campaign.  

Berman's district is also “home to Trump Tower, where a meeting between Trump campaign officials and Kremlin-linked Russians occurred in 2016," Newsweek said.  

Growing up in Trenton, New Jersey, Berman graduated from Penn in 1981, according to Bloomberg News. He received his law degree from Stanford Law School before going to clerk for Judge Leonard I. Garth at Philadelphia's U.S. Court of Appeals.

Berman served as an assistant U.S. attorney in Manhattan and handled criminal prosecutions, including securities and computer-hacking cases. In the late 1980s, Berman was one of the members that “successfully prosecuted Thomas Clines, a former CIA official connected to the Iran-Contra investigation, on tax charges,” Bloomberg reports. Berman is also a partner at Greenberg Traurig, a prominent law firm in New York. 

According to Bloomberg, Berman also worked on the legal team for President Trump’s transition team.  Bill Palatucci  — the general counsel of the legal team — described Berman as an “active supporter of the Republican Party for many years.”

Berman will succeed former U.S. attorney Preet Bharara, who Trump fired in March after Bharara refused to resign, Business Insider reported.