USA TODAY International Edition
Nothing’s ‘off limits’ in Preet Bahara’s podcast
He wants people to ‘stay tuned’ for his next move
NEW YORK Ever since President Trump fired him in March, Preet Bharara has returned fire with his own legal critiques of the president’s actions via Twitter. Now, the former federal prosecutor is turning up the volume, launching a new podcast to discuss justice and fairness issues — including, potentially, the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and the circumstances of his firing.
“I’m not putting anything off limits,” Bharara tells USA TODAY.
Bharara’s ouster from the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, one of the nation’s most powerful legal posts, has given him more leeway to speak freely. His new podcast series is titled “Stay Tuned With Preet” — a winking reference to the catchphrase Bharara frequently employed to parry questions from news reporters about continuing federal investigations.
And Bharara seems to hold nothing back in a promotional audio trailer for the first podcast slated to run on Wednesday. Overseeing prosecutions of mobsters, murderers, and corrupt politicians was the best job he ever had, he says.
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“I lost that job,” adds Bharara, with dramatic flair. “Actually, that’s a euphemism. I was fired. By President Donald Trump himself.”
In an interview, Bharara says he plans to address his firing in one of the first podcasts, “so people will understand the context from which I’m speaking.”
Bharara has said he agreed to stay on as a federal prosecutor at Trump’s request, after a meeting at Trump Tower during the presidential transition. But Trump fired Bharara and 45 other U.S. Attorney holdovers from the Obama administration in March — after Bharara, citing Justice Department rules, says he declined to return a phone call from the recently inaugurated president.
The 48-year-old attorney says his forthcoming podcast is not planned as a current events series, or even to be specifically about Trump. It’s meant to be a broad examination of new and ongoing justice and fairness issues, such as the role of the press in a democracy, and judicial issues, he says. Joining him will be prosecutors, judges, Department of Justice officials and investigative reporters.
“I’m not doing a weekly podcast to throw bombs. I’m a private citizen, I’m not special counsel Mueller,” Bharara tells USA TODAY, referring to former FBI director Robert Mueller, who’s investigating Russia’s suspected campaign of cyberattacks and fake news to influence the 2016 presidential election and possible collusion with Trump associates.
“If I were in the White House, the only person I’d be worried about is Mr. Mueller,” says Bharara.
That said, the podcasts could present Bharara with opportunities to discuss Trump and the new administration from his perspective. “I have personal experience with how this president seems to view rule of law and law and order issues, and I have not been especially shy about that on social media,” Bharara says.
Already, for his nearly half-million Twitter followers, Bharara has been a regular critic of Trump and his administration’s legal positions — and a frequent commentator on the ongoing Russia investigation. His 140-character missives perhaps hint about the tone he’ll take in the podcasts. After all, he’s accused the president and his administration of being “un-American” and “legal undermining of democratic norms.”
Bharara declined to discuss his specific topics or guests for the podcasts. However, some of the recent news developments he chose to illustrate the types of issues that could prompt podcast episodes appeared to take direct aim at Trump — such as the “firing of the chief law enforcement official in the country.”
Trump’s dismissed FBI chief James Comey in May, a move that prompted the Justice Department to shift leadership of the Russia investigation to Mueller. On social media, Bharara has been open about his belief the firing of his former law enforcement colleague could amount to obstruction of justice.
Other legal themes that Bharara says “would be natural to talk about” include “rule of law issues related to appointment of a special counsel.”
Stressing that he would only address the Mueller-led Russia investigation as a private citizen, Bharara nonetheless suggested that his legal observations of some specific details of the unfolding case would be interesting to average listeners.
For instance, there was a delay before media organizations learned about the FBI’s pre-dawn July search of the home of Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, says Bharara. That suggests that investigators directed by Mueller are being careful not to make mistakes or court publicity that could open them to criticism, he says.
“That tells me something about the investigation, and that is something I feel comfortable talking about that I think lay people would appreciate,” says Bharara.
Yet another controversial episode Bharara suggested he could explore is “unexpected” presidential pardons, like the one Trump issued in late August for former Arizona Sheriff Joseph Arpaio. Arpaio had been convicted of criminal contempt in connection with a long-running racial profiling lawsuit.
Trump pardoned Arpaio without following the standard process, which usually requires seven layers of review and an FBI background check.
Bharara seemed every inch the standard jacket-and-tie Justice Department prosecutor during the seven years the Obama appointee and his legal staff prosecuted financial industry insider-trading, organized crime, Ponzi scheme mastermind Bernard Madoff, and public corruption cases against top New York State leaders of both major political parties.
But he’d ditched the tie for an open-neck shirt and tapered slacks as he discussed his new transition at Some Spider Studios, the Manhattan media production company where he’s now a business partner and with his younger brother, Vinit.