Wall Street enforcer refuses to quit, is fired
Democratic congressman requests summary of probes linked to Trump
NEW YORK — A defiant Manhattan federal prosecutor who says “absolute independence” was his touchstone for over seven years as he battled public corruption announced he was fired Saturday after he refused to resign.
Preet Bharara, 48, revealed his firing on his personal Twitter account. Several hours later, it was learned President Donald Trump had reached out through a secretary on his staff to Bharara on Thursday but the two men never spoke.
The attempted contact — described by a person told about the conversations who requested anonymity — continued the unusual dynamic between Trump and the high profile prosecutor that stretched to Nov. 30, when Bharara emerged from a Trump Tower meeting with Trump to say the then-president-elect had asked him to stay on the job.
Bharara was informed he was fired by Dana Boente, the acting deputy attorney general, shortly after it became widely known that he did not intend to step down in response to Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ request that leftover appointees of former President Barack Obama quit.
“I did not resign. Moments ago I was fired,” Bharara tweeted.
In a statement later, he said: “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. One hallmark of justice is absolute independence, and that was my touchstone every day that I served.”
He said current Deputy U.S. Attorney Joon H. Kim will serve as acting U.S. attorney.
Meanwhile, Michigan Rep. John Conyers, the House Judiciary Committee’s top Democrat, requested Saturday that the committee receive a summary of probes linked to Trump, whether they touch on his administration, transition, campaign and organization, “so that we can understand the full implications of this weekend’s firings.”
He said he suspected Bharara “could be reviewing a range of potential improper activity emanating from Trump Tower and the Trump campaign, as well as entities with financial ties to the president or the Trump organization.”
U.S. Attorney for the District of New Mexico Damon Martinez has tendered his resignation after Attorney General Jeff Sessions asked 46 U.S. attorneys from around the country to resign.
Martinez was sworn in as U.S. attorney for New Mexico in May 2014. He has been a federal prosecutor since 2000, when he started in the Las Cruces Branch Office as a special assistant U.S. attorney.
“The U.S. Attorney’s Office confirms that, at the request of U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Damon P. Martinez tendered his resignation as the U.S. Attorney for the District of New Mexico on the afternoon of March 10, 2017,” Elizabeth Martinez, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Mexico, said in a statement Saturday.
She said First Assistant U.S. Attorney James D. Tierney will serve as Acting U.S. Attorney until a new U.S. Attorney is nominated by President Trump and confirmed by the Senate.
Martinez led the local U.S. Attorney’s Office during the Department of Justice’s investigation and settlement agreement with the city of Albuquerque over the Albuquerque Police Department. The DOJ found that the police department had a pattern of excessive force, and the police are now proceeding with a yearslong reform effort that is being overseen by a federal judge.
Also under Martinez, federal prosecutors in Albuquerque focused efforts on targeting the state’s “Worst of the Worst” offenders with federal prosecutions. Federal authorities work alongside state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies to identify the most dangerous repeat criminals in various communities. Law enforcement officials then work to build federal cases, such as felon in possession of a firearm charges, against those suspects because certain crimes carry much longer prison sentences in federal, as opposed to state, courts.
Martinez was also the U.S. attorney when the New Mexico Heroin and Opioid Prevention and Education Initiative, also known as HOPE, was launched.
As part of that program, federal prosecutors target heroin and opioid trafficking suspects due to the high number of opioid-related deaths in the state.
Martinez was one of 46 U.S. attorneys — holdovers from the Obama administration — who were asked to resign on Friday.
There are 93 U.S. attorneys throughout the country. The president appoints the prosecutors.