Firing follows call for attorneys to resign
NEW YORK - An outspoken Manhattan federal prosecutor known for crusading against public corruption announced he was fired Saturday after he refused a request a day earlier to resign.
Preet Bharara, 48, made the announcement on his personal Twitter account after it became widely known hours earlier that he did not intend to step down in re- sponse 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 said in the tweet. “Being the US Attorney in SDNY will forever be the greatest honor of my professional life.”
The Justice Department late Saturday confirmed Bharara was no longer U.S. attorney.
Just over three months ago, then-President-elect Donald Trump asked Bharara to remain as U.S. attorney in Manhattan and Bharara told reporters after the Trump Tower meeting that he had agreed to do so.
Bharara was appointed by Obama in 2009.
In frequent public appearances, Bharara has decried public corruption after successfully prosecuting over a dozen state lawmakers, Democrats and Republicans alike.
Sessions’ decision to include Bharara’s name on the list of 46 resignations of holdovers from the Obama administration surprised Manhattan prosecutors. While it is customary for a new president to replace virtually all of the 93 U.S. attorneys, it often occurs at a slower pace. Sessions lost his position as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Alabama in a similar sweep by then-Attorney General Janet Reno in 1993.
New York Sen. Charles Schumer, a Democrat, said in a statement Friday that he was “troubled to learn” of the resignation demands, particularly of Bharara, since Trump called him in November and assured him that he wanted Bharara to remain Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor. Schumer said that by requesting immediate resignations, Trump was “interrupting ongoing cases and investigations and hindering the administration of justice.”