Saturday 11 March 2017

Preet Bharara Is Fired After Refusing to Step Down as U.S. Attorney

Preet Bharara last year. On Friday, Mr. Bharara was asked to step down along with 45 other United States attorneys. Credit Bryan R. Smith for The New York Times
Preet Bharara, the Manhattan federal prosecutor who was asked by President Trump to remain in his post shortly after the election, was fired on Saturday after he refused an order to submit his resignation.
Mr. Bharara’s dismissal capped an extraordinary showdown in which a political appointee who was named by Mr. 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,” Mr. Bharara wrote on his personal Twitter feed, which he set up in the last two weeks.

  • Mr. Bharara was among 46 holdover Obama appointees who were called by the acting deputy attorney general on Friday and told to immediately submit resignations and plan to clear out of their offices. But Mr. Bharara, who was called to Trump Tower for a meeting with the incoming president in late November 2016, declined to do so.
Mr. Bharara said he was asked by Mr. Trump to remain in his current post at the meeting. Mr. Bharara met with Mr. Trump at Trump Tower, and then addressed reporters afterward.
Before the firing, one of New York’s top elected Republicans voiced support for Mr. Bharara on Saturday.

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