Preet Bharara, the powerful Manhattan prosecutor who was among 46 US attorneys asked to step down late Friday, has refused to tender his resignation, according to reports citing unnamed associates of the attorney.
On Friday afternoon, attorney general Jeff Sessions told the prosecutors, nearly all appointed by Barack Obama, that they should resign from their posts. The overhaul of US attorneys is standard practice for a new administration, though some presidents do so in phases. Bharara, 48, met with Trump late last year, however, and told reporters afterward that he had “agreed to stay on”.
“The president-elect asked,” Bharara said at the time, “presumably because he’s a New Yorker and is aware of the great work that our office has done over the past seven years, asked to met with me to discuss whether or not I’d be prepared to stay on as the United States attorney to do the work we have done, independently, without fear or favor for the last seven years.
“We had a good meeting,” he added. “I said I would absolutely consider staying on. I agreed to stay on. I have already spoken to Senator Sessions, who as you know is the nominee for attorney general. He also asked that I stay on, and so I expect that I will be continuing to work at the southern district.”
On Saturday morning, the Associated Press, CNN, the Daily Beast and the New York Times cited anonymous sources to report that Bharara does not plan to submit a resignation letter, at least not yet. If confirmed, the prosecutor’s refusal would set up a clash between one of the country’s most powerful attorneys and the president, who may be forced to fire Bharara directly, as he did the acting attorney general, Sally Yates.
The Guardian did not immediately receive a reply from the office of the southern district of New York.
Over seven years as the top prosecutor in the southern district of New York, Bharara has pursued aggressive cases and investigations into corruption in politics and Wall Street. At the time he was asked to resign, Bharara was overseeing investigations into aides and associates of the Democratic governor, Andrew Cuomo, and the Democratic mayor, Bill de Blasio. Bharara also prosecuted the former Republican state senator Dean Skelos, high-profile insider trader cases and a 120-person Bronx case believed to be the largest gang prosecution in city history.
Before being appointed by Obama in 2009, Bharara rose to prominence working for New York senator Chuck Schumer, now the minority leader in the Senate. Bharara served as chief counsel to Schumer during the latter years of George W Bush’s presidency, and led the investigation into the abrupt dismissals of US attorneys in 2006.
(TheGuardian US)
