U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara Fired After Refusing To Resign
The Trump Administration says "you're fired" to a prominent prosecutor.
Preet Bharara (Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images)
UPDATE (3/12/2017, 9:30 p.m.): Please note the UPDATE at the end — was there perhaps a major misunderstanding here?
As we noted in passing on Friday, the Trump Administration recently asked the 46 remaining Obama-era U.S. Attorneys to submit their resignations. We didn’t give this news huge play because, well, it’s not surprising for U.S. Attorneys to change over with a new administration — especially with a new president who (1) wants to make a decisive break with his predecessor and (2) rose to fame by saying “you’re fired.”
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But we didn’t expect the requests to include Preet Bharara, the long-serving, highly regarded U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Bharara met personally with Donald Trump after the election and, at Trump’s request, agreed to stay on as the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan. Senator Chuck Schumer — Bharara’s former boss, when he served as the senator’s chief counsel before becoming U.S. Attorney — confirmed Bharara’s account of the Trump meeting, saying that then-President-elect Trump “initiated a call to me in November and assured me he wanted Mr. Bharara to continue to serve as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District.”
That was then, and this is now. Around 2:30 p.m. today, Bharara tweeted as follows:
Here’s a bit more background, from the Washington Post:
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On Friday, acting deputy attorney general Dana Boente began making calls to 46 prosecutors asking for their resignations. Such requests are a normal part of a transition of power from one administration to another, and about half of the 94 Obama-era U.S. attorneys had already left their jobs.
But Boente’s call to Bharara, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, appears to have left some confusion in its wake, in large part because President Trump met with Bharara soon after the election and had asked him to stay on.
During Friday’s call, Bharara asked for clarity about whether the requests for resignations applied to him, given his previous conversation with Trump, and did not immediately get a definitive answer, according to a person familiar with the exchange.
This made me wonder whether perhaps Bharara’s inclusion in the calls was due to inattention or inadvertence on the part President Trump (who is, by his own admission, not big on details). But it’s now clear that Bharara’s termination had support from the highest quarters. As reported by BuzzFeed News, President Trump personally called two U.S. Attorneys — Boente, the acting deputy attorney general who made the “please resign” calls, and Rod Rosenstein, the nominee for deputy attorney general — to tell them that he would not accept their resignations. This shows that President Trump knows how to make clear to a U.S. Attorney that he’s “safe” — and that Trump didn’t do so for Bharara.
More from the Post:
When asked Friday whether Bharara was also being asked for a resignation letter, one White House official not authorized to speak publicly said, “Everybody’s gone,” and would not engage further on the issue. Two people close to Trump said the president’s chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon and Attorney General Jeff Sessions want a clean slate of federal prosecutors and are unconcerned about any perception that the White House appears to have changed its mind about Bharara.
This wouldn’t be the first time that the Trump Administration has changed its mind about something, of course.
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There are lots of theories floating around as to what happened here. Was this just the standard changing of the guard with the new administration? Was the S.D.N.Y. working on some case or investigation that met with the Trump Administration’s ire?
And there’s this possibility, raised by Maggie Haberman and Benjamin Weiser of the New York Times:
Two White House officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the promise to keep Mr. Bharara on was a product of a chaotic transition process and Mr. Trump’s desire at the time to try to work with Senator Chuck Schumer, with whom Mr. Bharara is close. The relationship between Mr. Trump and Mr. Schumer, the Senate minority leader, has since soured.
If Trump wanted to stick it to Schumer, firing the senator’s most prominent protégé would seem to do the trick. (But note that, per the Times, “Phil Singer, a former aide to Mr. Schumer and a Democratic strategist, called it ‘absurd’ to suggest that Mr. Bharara’s firing was meant to punish Mr. Schumer.”)
What to make of Bharara’s termination? Here’s a range of reactions, from Twitter:
As to my colleague Joe Patrice’s comment, query whether the firing of Bharara signifies some erosion of the S.D.N.Y.’s traditional status of being more independent of Main Justice than other U.S. Attorney’s Offices (i.e., “the Sovereign District of New York”).
Joe also raises the question that’s on many a mind in the legal world:
Preet Bharara might no longer be wanted in the Trump Administration, but rest assured that many Biglaw firms will pony up big bucks to land the star prosecutor. Although I expect Bharara to wind up in elected office someday, given his strong focus on public and government service, he might want to park himself at a firm or in-house legal department for a few years while waiting for the right position to open up.
Although he hardly needs it, given his stellar reputation and tremendous track record as a prosecutor, good luck to Bharara in his future endeavors. The legal world surely hasn’t heard the last of the Sheriff of Wall Street.
UPDATE (3/12/2017, 9:30 p.m.): Actually, was Bharara supposed to be spared, just like Rod Rosenstein and Dana Boente? The Times is now reporting:
The call to Preet Bharara’s office from President Trump’s assistant came on Thursday. Would Mr. Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan, please call back?
…. It was unclear whether the president’s call on Thursday was an effort to explain his change of heart about keeping Mr. Bharara or to discuss another matter. The White House would not comment on Saturday.
However, there are protocols governing a president’s direct contact with federal prosecutors. According to two people with knowledge of the events who were not authorized to discuss delicate conversations publicly, Mr. Bharara notified an adviser to the attorney general, Jeff Sessions, that the president had tried to contact him and that he would not respond because of those protocols. Mr. Bharara then called Mr. Trump’s assistant back to say he could not speak with the president, citing the protocols.
Is it possible that President Trump was calling Bharara, just as he called Rosenstein and Boente, to say that he didn’t want Bharara’s resignation — but Preet fumbled by refusing to take the call, and then Trump changed his mind? (Yes, there are protocols about presidents contacting U.S. attorneys — but it’s certainly possible that President Trump didn’t know — or care — about such protocols.)
Top N.Y. federal prosecutor says he was fired after refusing to resign [Washington Post]
U.S. Attorney Bharara Fired After Refusing to Step Down [New York Times]
US Attorney Preet Bharara Fired After Refusing To Comply With Trump Admin Order To Resign [BuzzFeed News]
Sessions asks 46 Obama-era US attorneys to resign [The Hill]
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An Evening With Preet Bharara
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David Lat is the founder and managing editor of Above the Law and the author of Supreme Ambitions: A Novel. He previously worked as a federal prosecutor in Newark, New Jersey; a litigation associate at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz; and a law clerk to Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. You can connect with David on Twitter (@DavidLat), LinkedIn, and Facebook, and you can reach him by email at dlat@abovethelaw.com.
