Saturday, March 11, 2017

Trump Fires Preet Bharara

The Trump Whitehouse has abruptly asked for the resignation of 46 US federal prosecutors appointed by the Obama Whitehouse, including US federal attorney for Manhattan-South Preet Bharara:


https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/10/us/politics/us-attorney-justice-department-trump.html?_r=0

http://news10.com/2017/03/10/report-preet-bharara-asked-to-step-down-by-the-trump-administration/


Trump had in previous weeks expressed admiration for Bharara and wanted him to stay on. But this abrupt 180 turnabout comes as opponents of Trump in the US Congress have called for Bharara to lead an investigation into the Trump Whitehouse over ties to Russia as well as Trump's financial dealings.

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/03/08/519281372/ethics-watchdogs-want-u-s-attorney-to-investigate-trumps-business-interests

Trump may be pre-emptively moving to eliminate Bharara before he can be turned into thorn in the side of the Trump administration.


UPDATE: Bharara refused to resign, effectively forcing Trump to fire him

http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/11/politics/bharara-not-resigning/

http://nypost.com/2017/03/11/preet-bharara-is-daring-trump-to-fire-him/

3 comments:

Sujeev said...

I like the Preet Bharara narrative, for exposing the limits,the extent to which Indian Americans can use Indians as stepping stones to success in America.

After Preet Bharara,it will be impossible for any Indian-American to pull a Devayani Khobragade to get ahead in America.

nizhal yoddha said...

bharara, i think, is an uncle tom. his biggest 'catches' were rajat patel, raj rajaratnam, and the indian diplomat devyani khobragade. i get the feeling bharara was especially keen on humiliating indians to demonstrate to massa obama that he was, after all, one of them democrats. string-searching devyani was strictly unnecessary, so was arresting her in front of her kids' school. though i have to say in passing that devyani is quite dishy if slightly dubious (has an american citizen husband!)

Sujeev said...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/03/11/preet-bharara-said-he-wanted-to-be-a-u-s-attorney-forever-well-he-was-just-fired/?utm_term=.26a3e0dfb373

Yes, cannot overlook the fact that Devayani Khobragade presented herself in a dishy fashion ☺.

And she was dubious too. Foreign husband, & foreign passports for her kids.

The Washington Post in an article 2 days ago makes note of Preet Bharara's GUNGADIN nature

"His Indian heritage made him a unique target for critics, who called him out for arresting and charging Indian nationals.


As Jenkins noted, Bharara’s heritage did not prevent him from arresting and charging India’s deputy consul general, Devyani Khobragade, for mistreatment of a domestic worker.

Indian diplomats reacted with outrage, calling him a “self-loathing” traitor to his heritage, and an embarrassed State Department had to bail out Khobragade with diplomatic immunity.

“Everyone should understand that our motivation is always to do the right thing, and we don’t pull our punches, and we don’t care who you are,” Bharara says, unapologetically.

Bharara told NPR that “a lot of people in the country of my birth, for whatever reason, began to think that it was something having to do with me personally, even though had they inquired a little bit, would have discovered that this office brings cases based on the facts and the law. And it doesn’t matter, you know, who you are and what you look like and where you’re from.”"