Bharara is fired after refusing to step down as U.S. attorney
ASSOCIATED PRESS In this Sept. 17, 2015 photo, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara speaks during a news conference in New York. The outspoken Manhattan federal prosecutor known for crusading against public corruption said on Saturday, March 11, 2017, that he was fired after refusing to resign. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
NEW YORK >> Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York who was asked by President Donald Trump to remain in his post shortly after the election, was fired Saturday after he refused an order to submit his resignation.
Bharara’s dismissal capped an extraordinary showdown in which a political appointee who was named by Trump’s predecessor, President Barack Obama, declined an order to submit a resignation.
“I did not resign. Moments ago I was fired. Being the US Attorney in SDNY will forever be the greatest honor of my professional life,” Bharara wrote on his personal Twitter feed, which he set up in the last two weeks.
Bharara was among 46 holdover Obama appointees who were called by the acting deputy attorney general Friday and told to immediately submit resignations and plan to clear out of their offices. But Bharara, who was called to Trump Tower for a meeting with the incoming president in late November, declined to do so.
Bharara said he was asked by Trump to remain in his current post at the meeting. Bharara met with Trump at Trump Tower, and then addressed reporters afterward.
Before the firing, one of New York’s top elected Republicans voiced support for Bharara on Saturday.
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“Good for Preet, he is doing the job he was appointed to do!” Assemblyman Brian M. Kolb, the state Assembly minority leader, wrote on Twitter.
Assemblyman Steven F. McLaughlin, a Republican who was fond of calling for draining the swamp in Albany long before Trump embraced that expression, had urged Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions to reconsider Friday.
“Big mistake,” he wrote on Twitter.
The Southern District of New York, which Bharara has overseen since 2009, encompasses Manhattan, Trump’s home before he was elected president, as well as the Bronx, Westchester, and other counties north of New York City.
Trump last weekend accused Obama of wiretapping Trump Tower in Manhattan, an allegation he has yet to back up.
But federal investigators have been examining whether there was a connection between Russian officials and the Trump campaign. Intelligence officials believe that the hacking of emails belonging to the Democratic National Committee and campaign officials for Hillary Clinton was orchestrated by the Kremlin.
© 2017 The New York Times Company
