Preet Bharara, the US Attorney General for the Southern District of New York, was fired Saturday after refusing a Trump Administration order to step down.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions requested on Friday that all remaining Obama-era attorneys general must vacate their positions and make way for Trump Administration appointees.
The switchover is common practice for incoming presidents, but Bharara, who has served as Manhattan’s Federal chief prosecutor since 2009, had to be removed from office after refusing to resign.
“I did not resign,” Bharara wrote on his personal Twitter account. “Moments ago I was fired. Being the US Attorney in SDNY will forever be the greatest honor of my professional life.”
Just a few weeks ago, President Donald Trump met with Bharara in Trump Tower to ask him to stay on. More recently, however, Trump and his top aides appear to have decided all Obama holdovers must leave office, likely because of an ongoing problem with leaks from the Justice Department, among other federal bureaus.
Bharara had to get a call from Deputy Attorney General Dana Boente ordering him to leave office. The White House and the Justice Department, including Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s office, have refused to comment.
Late Saturday night, an anonymous White House aide told the New York Times that the President had tried to call Bharara to give him a personal thank-you on Thursday, but Bahara could not respond because of protocol.
Another aide told the Wall Street Journal that the White House was unhappy with Bharara’s behavior: “The U.S. attorneys are political appointees, and all 46 of the holdovers from the Obama administration received the same resignation letter. It’s fair to say that 45 of the 46 behaved in a manner befitting the office,” he said.
“As much as Preet wants everything to be about Preet, everyone was treated the same way.”
Bharara responded by saying that the White House “anonymous sources are not to be believed.”
The dramatic incident seems to be the latest evidence that the Trump Administration is executing policies without a rollout strategy. It’s leaving friends and foes confused in the wake of sudden proclamations and abrupt changes—even if some, like the US attorneys general, probably should have been expecting it.
Unfortunately, Bharara serves at the “will of the President,” and that means he can’t refuse to vacate his office when ordered, even if he believes he’s taking a principled stand.
Bharara was a high-profile attorney who was known, occasionally, as the “Wall Street Watchdog.” In his career he presided over a number of high profile cases—and at least two groups of people will be relieved that Bharara is cleaning out his desk: anonymous Internet commenters and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Bharara was pursuing cases against aides to New York Gov, Andrew Cuomo—due to go to trial this year—and a major investigation into de New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s fundraising efforts, on the theory that de Blasio had been rewarding his major donors with “special favors.” This will probably put that investigation on hold.
He is also famous for once trying to subpoena several of Reason.com‘s anonymous commenters, who had complained, in the blog’s discussion section, about the judge presiding over the trial of Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht. Internet commenters can now rest safe that they are likely free from —at least for the time being.
