Bharara’s aides likely to go, too

EXPECT FIRED U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara’s top people to follow him out the door — and his Trump-approved successor to put his own stamp on the office, experts say.

“You may well have a change in priorities or a rethinking of a case by a new leader,” said Daniel Richman, a Columbia University law professor, after Bharara’s sudden Saturday dismissal.

“There are judgment calls that are often made in complex, nuanced cases,” he continued. “They may have a different view of the world.”

While one ex-assistant U.S. attorney said the Bharara firing won’t result in a “bloodbath” of staff firings, experts said the departing prosecutor’s top-level staff are likely to leave with him.

“They’re probably more loyal to him than they are to the current administration,” said Carl Tobias of the University of Richmond School of Law.

Richman agreed: “I think some senior assistants often take it as a fitting time for leaving.”

Tobias — noting the pending investigation of alleged pay-toplay in the de Blasio administration — wondered what affect the dismissal would have on pending cases in the prestigious Southern District.

“It has a lot of critical cases, and there are likely to be some disruptions in those cases — especially if they lose those people at the top,” said Tobias. “That’s a problem.”

The ex-assistant U.S. attorney wondered if the younger lawyers in the U.S. attorney’s office might depart after working under the charismatic Bharara, who made and won big cases.

“That is the question: Will the people in their fourth, fifth, sixth year — who’ve worked under Preet, and that’s all they know — will they leave?

“And if they do leave, the office is going to suffer.”

Richman agreed that a mass firing in the nation’s busiest courthouse was not a possibility.

“I don’t believe it can be done,” said Richman. “The reason is because it never happens.”