Is Trump Hiding Something? Preet Bharara Declined Trump Call Before Firing

India-born top US prosecutor Preet Bharara and the White House have offered conflicting explanations for a phone call that came from President Donald Trump’s office to the US Attorney just hours before he was sacked after he adamantly refused to resign from his post. Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores told India-West in an e-mail that many Obama-appointed us attorneys had already submitted their resignations.

He told the world what had happened on Twitter.

“I did not resign”, Bharara posted on his personal Twitter account.

President Trump called two USA attorneys, Dana Boente and Rod Rosenstein, on Friday to inform them he was declining to accept their resignations, Justice Department spokesperson Peter Carr said in a statement on Friday.

Although US attorneys are political appointees, and the request from Trump’s Justice Department is part of a routine process, the move came as a surprise. That is what Preet Bharara, the camera-ready and highly charismatic USA attorney for the Southern District of NY, claims that President Trump did to him, and Bharara is plenty angry about it. One of the people described an oddly subdued reaction mixed with anxiety as the events unfolded.

If it’s done by the Trump administration, it must be a conspiracy – at least according to CNN.

Boente then called Bharara back and said Trump was firing him, the source said.

His office was preparing to take on a “major public corruption case involving former aides and associates of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and is looking into allegations of pay-for-play around Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York”, according to the New York Times.

The Guardian did not immediately receive a reply to a call or email seeking comment from the office of the southern district of NY. There was, however, some confusion as to whether the administration had specifically decided Bharara, despite the earlier conversations about staying on, should go.

It was not immediately clear when each of the prosecutors would resign, or if they all actually will.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara has been fired by the Trump administration after refusing an order to resign. Chuck Schumer, with whom Bharara is close.

Schumer was not alone among Democrats in expressing his disapproval of the situation, and of the way Bharara’s firing was handled.

Bharara had reportedly met Trump on November 30, after which the attorney had said that the duo had a “good meeting” and he had agreed to continue in Trump’s administration.