This one I don't get. Bharara is all about draining the swamp. He has a hard on for political corruption. His office has investiagations into multiple high powered democratic New York politicians including De Blasio.

New York federal prosecutor Preet Bharara has not submitted resignation

By Devlin Barrett, Sari Horwitz, Robert CostaMarch 11, 2017 at 1:45 PM
National Security


U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara speaks during a Reuters Newsmaker event in New York City, U.S., July 13, 2016.(Brendan Mcdermid/Reuters)
Preet Bharara, one of the most high profile federal prosecutors in the country, had not submitted a letter of resignation as of Saturday morning amid uncertainty about whether he had been asked to tender his resignation as part of Friday’s ouster of the remaining U.S. attorneys who were holdovers from the Obama administration, according to people familiar with the matter.

On Friday, acting Deputy Attorney General Dana Boente began making calls to 46 prosecutors asking for their resignations. Such requests are a normal part of a transition of power from one administration to another, and about half of the 94 Obama era U.S. attorneys had already left their jobs.

But Boente’s call to Bharara, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, appears to have left some confusion in its wake, in large part because Donald Trump met with Bharara soon after the election and had asked him to stay on.

During Friday’s call, Bharara asked for clarity about whether the requests for resignations applied to him, given his previous conversation with Trump, and did not get a definitive answer, according to a person familiar with the exchange.

When asked Friday if Bharara was also being asked for a resignation letter, one White House official not authorized to speak publicly said, “Everybody’s gone,” and would not engage further on the issue. Two people close to the president said the president’s chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon and Attorney General Jeff Sessions want a clean slate of federal prosecutors and are unconcerned about any perception that the White House appears to have changed its mind about Bharara. The ouster of Obama’s federal prosecutors is about asserting who’s in power, these people said.

Another government official said Bharara had not submitted a resignation letter apparently because he didn’t believe he was supposed to.

The Justice Department declined to comment.

Bharara, who is based in Manhattan, has a particularly powerful perch in the criminal justice system. He has pursued corrupt politicians, global terror suspects, and corporate malfeasance.

There is no indication that the potential ousting of Bharara stems from a disagreement about a particular case or investigation. The president complained on Twitter earlier this month that Obama had ordered wiretapping of Trump Tower during the election season — an accusation that multiple federal law enforcement officials have said is untrue — partly because presidents cannot order the FBI to wiretap Americans, and also because no such surveillance was undertaken. But Bharara was not drawn into that debate, which principally revolved around Justice Department headquarters and FBI headquarters.

After Trump won the presidency, he met in late November with Bharara. The meeting came about, according to people familiar with the matter, after Mr. Trump called New York senator Charles E. Schumer and congratulated him on becoming the leader of the Senate Democrats. In that conversation, Trump brought up Bharara, and said he was thinking of keeping him in his job, these people said. Schumer praised Bharara and Trump then arranged a meeting with Bharara at Trump Tower.

During the conversation, Trump told Bharara to call Sessions, his nominee for attorney general, who also asked Bharara to stay.

When Bharara was leaving, according to one person familiar with the meeting, he asked the president-elect what he should tell the reporters in the lobby. Trump told Bharara to tell them he was staying on, this person said.

Devlin Barrett writes about national security, homeland security and counterterrorism for The Post. He joined the newspaper in 2017 after 15 years with The Wall Street Journal and the AP. His first newspaper job was as a copy boy at the New York Post, and has covered law enforcement – from local cops to global manhunts - for more than 20 years.

Sari Horwitz covers the Justice Department and criminal justice issues nationwide for The Washington Post, where she has been a reporter for 30 years.

Robert Costa is a national political reporter at The Washington Post.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/w...680e18d10_story.html

They just canned him so I guess he did mean all.

^^^ Word.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/0...ara-us-attorney.html

Funny, yesterday's Wall Street Journal reported that Trump et al discussed Bharara's staying on with him, but made no mention of his actually being asked to stay on.

I've been a fan of Preet's work. Not sure this is a good move but not going to second guess President Trump either.

Well, he was appointed by the great hope hisself, so I guess it was necessary to drain ze suampe.

quote:

Originally posted by 12GA:
I've been a fan of Preet's work. Not sure this is a good move but not going to second guess President Trump either.

I will it was a shit move. Preet has done a lot to stomp out corruption in a short period of time. If you are a UFC fan the only reason you can see it live in NYC now is because Bharara put Sheldon Silver's crooked ass in jail.

The Biggest Names on Preet Bharara’s Trophy Wall

Margaret Hartmann December 1, 2015 3:30 a.m.
U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara And Author Tom Wolfe Speak At The 10th Annual FOLCS Film Festival
What's Bharara next move? Photo: Michael Nagle/© 2015 Bloomberg Finance LP
Former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s conviction on Monday was a huge blow against Albany’s culture of corruption, but it was also a major personal victory for Preet Bharara, the crusading U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. From the beginning of his tenure in 2009, Bharara has vowed to make cleaning up New York politics a top priority, and after taking on two of the most powerful men in Albany — Silver and former Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos — earlier this year, he has to deliver.

“The aura he wants to create is as a corruption fighter, someone who is going to root out the cancer plaguing New York State for so long. If he loses even one of these cases, people are going to wonder whether the big talk is consistent with the results,” Pace Law professor Bennett Gershman, a former state prosecutor, told the New York Daily News.

Scoring a conviction against Skelos, who is currently on trial, in addition to Silver, would solidify Bharara’s legacy, but taking on shady Albany politicians is just one feather in his cap. Bharara’s office has gone after a slew of notable targets, from international terrorists to Wall Street criminals — and the list is expected to keep growing.

For years there’s been speculation that like former U.S. attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Chris Christie, Bharara might transition into politics. But the bigger question right now is who he’ll go after next. Recently Bharara’s office has been looking into Governor Andrew Cuomo’s meddling in the activities of the anti-corruption Moreland Commission, and the Buffalo Billion economic-development initiative. There’s no sign that Cuomo has done anything criminal, but as New York’s Chris Smith put it, Bharara seems frustrated at “not being able to make the biggest Albany case of all.” Plus, he wants everyone from gang leaders to top politicians to know that he’s watching. Here are some of the memorable figures who learned that the hard way:

Faisal Shahzad, the attempted Times Square bomber
In 2010, Faisal Shahzad, who was captured at JFK Airport en route to Dubai after a failed attempt to set off a car bomb in the heart of Manhattan, pleaded guilty to multiple terrorism charges and was sentenced to life in prison.

“He decided on a Saturday evening in 2010 that he wanted to blow up as many people as possible in Times Square. We stayed up for the next 53 hours until he was in custody, and there was a lot of anxiety about that because he was on the loose,” Bharara recalled in a 2013 interview with the New York Times. “We learned afterwards that his plan was to keep blowing up people and kill as many Americans as he possibly could … If he hadn’t been caught when he was, who knows what kind of damage he would have done.”

Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, adviser to Osama bin Laden
The Kuwaiti-born cleric was sentenced to life in prison in 2014 after being found guilty of serving as al-Qaeda’s main mouthpiece and recruiter, and conspiring to kill Americans. He sat with bin Laden, his father-in-law, after the September 11 attacks, and was the most senior bin Laden adviser tried in civilian court in the U.S.“He was more than just Osama bin Laden’s propaganda minister,” Bharara said after his conviction. “Within hours after the devastating 9/11 attacks, Abu Ghayth was using his position in al Qaeda’s homicidal hierarchy to persuade others to pledge themselves to al Qaeda in the cause of murdering more Americans.”

Image
Photo: 0851/2011 Gamma-Rapho
Viktor Bout, Russian arms dealer
Bharara’s office extradited and prosecuted the notorious Russian arms trafficker known as the “merchant of death.” In 2012 he was sentenced to 25 years in jail for conspiring to kill Americans and provide support to a terrorist organization after agreeing to sell arms to U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration informants posing as members of a a Colombian rebel group.

Raj Rajaratnam, billionaire hedge-fund manager
In his first two years on the job, Bharara charged 46 people with insider trading and secured 30 guilty pleas, which earned him a Time magazine cover with the headline "This Man Is Busting Wall Street." His biggest victory was the conviction of Raj ­Rajaratnam, the billionaire co-founder of the Galleon Group, a massive hedge fund, on 14 counts of securities fraud and conspiracy. He was sentenced to 11 years in prison, the longest sentence ever for insider trading. Rajat Gupta, the former Goldman Sachs director convicted of passing confidential information to ­Rajaratnam, was sentenced to two years in federal prison.

Image
Raj Rajaratnam at his sentencing hearing on October 13, 2011. Photo: Mario Tama/2011 Getty Images
J.P. Morgan and Bernie Madoff’s associates
In 2014, Bharara reached an agreement with JPMorgan Chase requiring the bank to pay $2.6 billion to resolve allegations that it turned a blind eye to Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. The money, which set a record for penalties stemming from violations of the 1970 Bank Secrecy Act, went to Madoff’s victims. Bharara’s office also successfully prosecuted several of Madoff’s associates, including his brother Peter Madoff, who was sentenced to ten years in prison for his role in the investment fraud.

Toyota and General Motors
Last year, Toyota agreed to pay a $1.2 billion fine to settle criminal charges for concealing acceleration problems linked to at least five deaths. "In its zeal to stanch bad publicity in 2009 and 2010, Toyota misled regulators, misled customers, and even misstated the facts to Congress," Bharara said while announcing the settlement, which is the largest ever against an auto company.

In September, General Motors agreed to pay a $900 million fine for hiding an ignition-switch defect linked to at least 174 deaths. Critics complained that the figure is only a fraction of the company’s annual revenue, and no individuals will be held responsible. Bharara defended the deal, saying it was a challenging case for prosecutors. “I met personally with families who lost loved ones in tragic accidents involving the switch and, I’ll tell you, those were among the most searing moments I’ve ever spent in my six-plus years as United States attorney,” he said.

Sheldon Silver and Dean Skelos
Seventeen Albany politicians have been indicted or convicted since Bharara took office. He used tactics usually employed against terrorists and mobsters, such as stings, wiretaps, and undercover agents, to take down various lawmakers, including State Senator Malcolm Smith, former State Senator Hiram Monserrate, and former Deputy Senate Majority Leader Tom Libous.

Of course, his two biggest "gets" were Silver and Skelos, who started off 2015 as two-thirds of the "three men in a room" who decide what gets done in Albany (Cuomo is the third). Both resigned their leadership positions following their arrests, and with his conviction on federal corruption charges — including bribery, extortion, and money laundering — Assemblyman Silver is facing 130 years in prison. Skelos and his son Adam have been accused of conspiracy, extortion, wire fraud, and bribery, and their trial should go to a jury in the next few weeks.

“These charges in our view go to the very core of what ails Albany: lack of transparency, lack of accountability, and lack of principle — joined with overabundance of greed, cronyism, and self-dealing. But we will keep at it,” Bharara said when announcing the charges against Silver in January. “As our unfinished fight against public corruption continues, you should stay tuned.”

http://nymag.com/daily/intelli...ras-trophy-wall.html

Isn't it standard practice to ask for the resignation of everyone and then rehire those who the President might want to stay on? Perhaps the President will rehire him...

quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:
Isn't it standard practice to ask for the resignation of everyone and then rehire those who the President might want to stay on? Perhaps the President will rehire him...

Doubtful after he refused to resign initially. Trump told him he was staying on before he took office but I guess reveresed course.

Perhaps the Donald has other plans for him which we will find out about a bit later. The Pres likes to keep good and LOYAL folks close to him.

I hope so

quote:

Originally posted by Dusty78:

The Biggest Names on Preet Bharara’s Trophy Wall

His wall lacks the one deserving name we really wanted, the head douchebag in Albany.


As folks said elsewhere, Upchuck started pulling for him to keep his job, which is reason enough to cut him loose.

I'm glad he got rid of him, it was necessary and better to do it now than later. This idea that Bharara is immune to politics is silly. If he decided to pursue some nefarious politically motivated investigation a year or 2 down the road, the Trump administration would then be in the position of looking like they were partisans for firing him. Better to do it now than later, when someone who is friends with Schumer decides to go after a political target. If Trump were to let him stay he would be have too much power to do whatever he wanted to do.

No one knows if Trump really asked him to stay on or not - that is strictly Bharara's version of the meeting they had. No confirmation from Trump that it really went down that way.

If Trump did ask him to stay, to me that is all the more reason to suspect that Trump learned something in the interim that made him realize he wanted Bharara out.

So you are saying play politics as usual and fuck what's a actually good for the people of NY? Isn't that what draining the swamp is supposed to be about? All I know is that this guy has done a lot of good; better than most of his predecessors.

quote:

Originally posted by Dusty78:
So you are saying play politics as usual and fuck what's a actually good for the people of NY? Isn't that what draining the swamp is supposed to be about? All I know is that this guy has done a lot of good; better than most of his predecessors.

No, I'm saying put someone better in there who is loyal. He's not the only US Attorney who can prosecute corruption.

I wouldn't trust the guy - he was appointed by Obama, worked for Holder and is friends with Schumer. I wouldn't turn my back to the guy, US Attorneys have way too much power to have a loose cannon in there.

The incredible number of unnamed sources and their alleged quotes, as well as quoting what the victim said everyone else said (in the OP) makes my fake-news-detector go off like crazy.
.

quote:

Originally posted by BamaJeepster:

quote:

Originally posted by Dusty78:
So you are saying play politics as usual and fuck what's a actually good for the people of NY? Isn't that what draining the swamp is supposed to be about? All I know is that this guy has done a lot of good; better than most of his predecessors.

No, I'm saying put someone better in there who is loyal. He's not the only US Attorney who can prosecute corruption.

I wouldn't trust the guy - he was appointed by Obama, worked for Holder and is friends with Schumer. I wouldn't turn my back to the guy, US Attorneys have way too much power to have a loose cannon in there.

My issue with that is putting someone in who might do as good a job vs the guy who is actually doing it. People complain about what a cesspool NYC politics are and here's your answer. A guy who isn't afraid to go after the democratic power elite. Silver was in power, basically running the city with his union influence for decades. Who is to say the next guy will do the job.

quote:

Originally posted by Dusty78:
My issue with that is putting someone in who might do as good a job vs the guy who is actually doing it. People complain about what a cesspool NYC politics are and here's your answer. A guy who isn't afraid to go after the democratic power elite. Silver was in power, basically running the city with his union influence for decades. Who is to say the next guy will do the job.

You could say that about the other 90+ US Attorneys, couldn't you? Who's to say that their replacement will be better?

More of the story is emerging, kinda makes him sound like a grandstanding prima donna:

https://www.axios.com/how-pree...down-2311076711.html

quote:

It was Acting Deputy Attorney General Dana Boente who informed 46 federal prosecutors on Friday that President Trump wanted their resignations. So when the news popped Saturday that Bharara, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, was refusing to comply and was willing to be fired, Boente called him in the early afternoon.

"He refused to admit that this applied to him," an administration official said. "As we talked to him and tried to reinforce that it did, he basically said: 'I'm interpreting that to mean you're firing me.'"

Preet then tweeted: "I did not resign. Moments ago I was fired. Being the US Attorney in SDNY will forever be the greatest honor of my professional life."

In other words, Sessions told them all to turn in their resignations, as is totally normal operating procedure under all administrations. Nothing says they were going to be accepted or if some might be asked to continue on. Sounds like Preet decided to fire himself.

"Serves at the pleasure..."

Obama donor that targeted Dinesh D'Souza, was on deck to replace Eric Holder. Stop looking at the shiney objects, he needs to go.