US attorney fired after refusing to step down
WASHINGTON: A prominent US prosecutor said yesterday the Trump Administration had fired him after he refused to step down.
New York US Attorney Preet Bharara’s defiant exit, first announced on Twitter, raised questions about President Donald
Trump’s ability to fill top jobs throughout his government.
Trump is yet to put forward any candidates to serve as the nation’s 93 district attorneys, even as his Justice Department asked the 46 who have not yet quit to hand in their resignations on Saturday. Key positions at agencies such as the State Department and the Defence Department also remain unfilled.
As the federal prosecutor for Manhattan and surrounds since 2009, Bharara secured insidertrading settlements from Wall Street firms and won criminal convictions in highprofile corruption and terrorism cases.
He told reporters in November Trump had asked him to stay in his post, and he refused to resign when asked to do so on Saturday. He said he was fired yesterday morning.
‘‘Serving my country as US attorney here for the past seven years will forever be the greatest honour of my professional life, no matter what else I do or how long I live,’’ he said.
The Justice Department confirmed that Bharara was no longer serving in the position and declined further comment.
All US attorneys are political appointees, who can be replaced when a new president takes office. Previous presidents have often asked outgoing attorneys to stay on the job until their replacements win confirmation in the Senate.
The Washington Post said the President’s adviser, Stephen Bannon, and Attorneygeneral Jeff Sessions wanted a clean slate of federal prosecutors to assert the Administration’s power. However, the decision to replace so many sitting attorneys at once has called the Trump Administration’s ability to enforce the nation’s laws into question.
Senator Patrick Leahy, a Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the firings showed ‘‘the independence of the Justice Department is at risk under this administration’’.
Career attorneys would fill in until new US attorneys were put in place, the Justice Department said.