Manhattan federal prosecutor Preet Bharara is fired after refusing call for resignation

Among the 46 USA attorneys appointed by President Barack Obama asked to resign on Friday by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, one name seemed at least slightly curious: Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of NY. Bharara, the Manhattan federal prosecutor who was asked by President Trump to remain in his post shortly after the election, was sacked after he refused an order to submit his resignation, The New York Times reported.

On Saturday, Trump fired Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney of the southern district of Manhattan, where the prosecutor had pursued corruption cases against members of both the Republican and Democratic parties. “He also asked that I stay on”, Bharara said.

“In January, I met with Vice President Pence and White House Counsel Donald McGahn and asked specifically whether all US attorneys would be fired at once”.

Now-former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in NY is matching President Donald Trump at his Twitter game.

While some have resigned, like Robert Capers, U.S. Attorney of the Eastern District of NY, two others, Rod Rosenstein of Maryland and Dana Boente of Virginia, were asked to stay (Rosenstein is Trump’s pick for deputy attorney general while Boente is the acting attorney general).

The president Friday asked for the resignations of the 46 USA attorneys who were holdovers from the Obama administration, a request that is not unusual when a new administration moves into the White House.

A White House spokeswoman said the White House statement issued Friday “was very clear in saying that all 46 [of the USA, attorneys being asked to resign] are being treated the same”.

Like all of the nation’s 93 US attorneys, Bharara is a political appointee who is typically replaced when a new president takes office.

Last November, the 48-year-old was asked by then-President-elect President Donald Trump to remain as U.S. attorney in Manhattan during a meeting at Trump Tower.

Bharara, a NY federal prosecutor, was initially asked to retain his post by Trump when the pair held a meeting in 2016. After all, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of NY was on the cover of Time magazine in 2012 and has been touted as a fearless anti-corruption crusader.

Administrations have the right to replace and nominate United States attorneys. Trump Tower, and therefore the Trump Organization, fell within Bharara’s jurisdiction of Manhattan.

But Bharara refused to resign, so he was sacked. He then informed Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s office, as well as Trump’s, that he would not be calling back.

The country’s 93 US attorneys usually leave their positions once a new president is in office.

She said she met with White House Counsel Donald McGahn in January and was told “that the transition would be done in an orderly fashion to preserve continuity”. “The president reached out to Preet Bharara on Thursday to thank him for his service and wish him good luck”, Sanders told the New York Times.