Defiant U.S. prosecutor fired by Trump
administration
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[March 13, 2017]
By Andy Sullivan and Mark Hosenball
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A prominent U.S.
prosecutor said the Trump administration fired him on Saturday after he
refused to step down, adding a discordant note to what is normally a
routine changing of top attorneys when a new president takes office.
New York U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara's defiant exit, first announced on
Twitter, raised questions about President Donald Trump's ability to fill
top jobs throughout his government.
Trump has yet to put forward any candidates to serve as the nation's 93
district attorneys even as his Justice Department asked the 46 who have
not yet quit to hand in their resignations on Friday. Key positions at
agencies like the State Department and the Defense Department also
remain unfilled.
As the federal prosecutor for Manhattan and surrounding areas since
2009, Bharara secured insider-trading settlements from Wall Street firms
and won criminal convictions in high-profile corruption and terrorism
cases.
He told reporters in November that Trump had asked him to stay in his
post, and he refused to resign when asked to do so by the Justice
Department on Friday. He said he was fired on Saturday afternoon.
"Serving my country as U.S. Attorney here for the past seven years will
forever be the greatest honor of my professional life, no matter what
else I do or how long I live," Bharara said in a press statement.
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The Justice Department confirmed that Bharara was no longer serving in
the position and declined further comment.
Like all U.S. attorneys, Bharara is a political appointee who can be
replaced when a new president takes office. Previous presidents have
often asked outgoing U.S. attorneys to stay on the job until their
replacements win confirmation in the U.S. Senate.
The Washington Post, citing two people close to Trump, said the
president's adviser Stephen Bannon and Attorney General Jeff Sessions
wanted a clean slate of federal prosecutors to assert the
administration's power.
But the decision to replace so many sitting attorneys at once has raised
questions about whether the Trump administration's ability to enforce
the nation's laws would be hindered.
"President Trump's abrupt and unexplained decision to summarily remove
over 40 U.S. attorneys has once again caused chaos in the federal
government," New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, a Democrat,
said.
Senator Patrick Leahy, a Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee,
said the firings showed "the independence of the Justice Department is
at risk under this administration" and that lawmakers had to carefully
evaluate Trump's replacements.
Career attorneys will carry on that work until new U.S. attorneys are
put in place, the Justice Department said.
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![](../images/031317pics/news_I13.jpg)
U.S. Attorney for the
Southern District of New York Preet Bharara speaks during a Reuters
Newsmaker event in New York City, U.S., July 13, 2016.
REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File photo
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Bharara said his deputy, Joon Kim, will serve as his temporary
replacement.
Marc Mukasey, a defense lawyer whose father served as attorney
general under Republican President George W. Bush, has been
mentioned as a possible replacement. He did not respond to a request
for comment.
HIGH-PROFILE OFFICE
Bharara's office handles some of the most critical business and
criminal cases passing through the federal judicial system. He has
been overseeing a probe into New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's
fundraising.
Bharara has successfully prosecuted state and local politicians for
corruption, including former New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon
Silver. He won a lifetime sentence against the Times Square bomber,
Faisal Shahzad, and a 25-year sentence for international arms dealer
Viktor Bout.
He won a $1.8 billion insider-trading settlement against SAC Capital
Advisors, the largest in history, which forced the hedge fund to
shut down, and he forced JPMorgan Chase to pay $1.7 billion to
settle charges related to its role in the Bernie Madoff Ponzi
scheme.
"His firing so early in President Trump's tenure is somewhat
unexpected, but if you had asked me a few months ago whether I
expected Preet to still be in that job in March I would have said
no," said Matthew Schwartz, a former prosecutor under Bharara.
Trump has asked two U.S. prosecutors to remain on the job, according
to the Justice Department.
U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein of Maryland has been asked to stay on
as the Senate considers his nomination to serve as the No. 2 Justice
Department official, and U.S. Attorney Dana Boente of Virginia, who
is temporarily serving in that position, has also been asked to
remain.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2017/Mar/13/images/ads/current/pestcontrol_bch_termites.png)
(Additional reporting by Emily Stephenson and Susan Heavey in
Washington, and Nathan Layne and Nate Raymond in New York; Editing
by Diane Craft and Mary Milliken)
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