Why it will be a tough climb to confirm anyone new to Berman's post before the November elections

Despite Attorney General Bill Barr's claim that Berman would be stepping down, the top prosecutor for the Southern District of New York said Friday he would not step aside until there's a Senate-confirmed nominee. But since there is a real possibility that the nomination of Jay Clayton to replace him could languish, that means Berman could be at the post indefinitely.

US attorney nominees typically follow what is known as the "blue-slip" process in the Senate, meaning that once home-state senators sign off on the nominee, then the confirmation proceedings will take place. But given the controversy around the attempted firing of Berman, it is highly unlikely that both Democratic senators from New York will sign off on Clayton's nomination to replace Berman.

On Saturday, New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader, called on Clayton to withdraw his name for consideration and for an inspector general probe into the reasoning behind Barr's attempt to fire Berman, whose office was investigating Trump confidante Rudy Giuliani and other sensitive matters.

Graham signaled he would let Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand sign off on Clayton's nomination before taking it up in his committee, something that is highly unlikely to happen.

"As to processing U.S. Attorney nominations, it has always been the policy of the Judiciary Committee to receive blue slips from the home state senators before proceeding to the nomination," Graham said. "As chairman, I have honored that policy and will continue to do so."

It's unclear whether Barr and President Donald Trump gave Republicans advanced notice about this attempt to remove Berman, who is investigating Trump associates, and whose office named Trump as "individual 1" in the Michael Cohen hush-money scandal where Trump sought to silence stories about his alleged extramarital affairs.

Graham said nobody had contacted him about the matter ahead of time, and a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell declined to comment on Saturday.

The process for considering a new nomination for the job would take several weeks, if not several months to play out. The nominees have to get FBI background investigations, have to fill out a questionnaire and have to answer written committee questions for the record.

US attorney nominations typically are approved with little dissent since home-state senators have already signed off on their nominations. But this nomination almost certainly would not get backing from both parties, meaning Republicans would have to push the Clayton pick forward and defend Trump's decision to fire Berman in the middle of an election year. There appears to be little appetite for that.

Indeed, if the GOP attempted to move Clayton's nomination, it undoubtedly would spark a huge partisan fight and eat up floor time when the Senate has a limited number of legislative days before the August recess and before the November elections.