Federal Prosecutor Says Ticking Off Judges Is His 'Public Interest' Duty

Why you gotta be so rude, Preet?

We have the best bench in the country. Does that mean that every member of the bench every day is exquisitely perfect? No. Everyone is a human being. On any given day, our job might be to stand up to a judge, not because it’s disrespectful, but because we have a duty to represent the public interest.

Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, commenting on his clashes with members of the federal judiciary in an interview with James B. Stewart of the New York Times. By way of background, Bharara’s ethics were recently called into question by Judge Valerie Caproni in the corruption case against the New York Assemblyman Sheldon Silver, a Second Circuit panel suggested Bharara’s office might have engaged in “judge shopping,” and last summer, he referred to Judge Naomi Buchwald as “the worst federal judge” he’d ever met.

(An anonymous judge told Stewart that “[a]ll of these incidents show a certain lack of humility,” and that “[a] little more deference would seem to be in order.” Sustained, Your Honor.)

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