WASHINGTON: The Trump Administration has pulled away any remaining existence of the Obama administration prosecutors at the justice department, by ordering 46 holdover US attorneys to put forth their resignations immediately.
The firings came as a surprise, especially for Preet Bharara, US attorney in Manhattan, who had held a meeting with then President-elect Donald Trump at Trump Tower, and was told to stay on. However, Bharara was one of the several federal prosecutors to receive a call from acting deputy attorney general Dana Boente, who instructed him to resign. While several prosecutors publicly announced their resignations, a spokesman for Bharara declined to comment. Justice department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores responded via email, saying that all remaining holdover US attorneys had been asked to resign, leaving their deputy US attorneys in place in an acting capacity.
"As was the case in prior transactions, many of the US attorneys nominated by the previous administrations already have left the department of justice. The Attorney General has now asked the remaining 46 presidentially appointed US attorneys to tender their resignations," she said. The rather unexpected order came just two weeks of increasing calls from Trump's allies asking to oust appointees from former president Barack Obama's administration. Several officials revealed the firings were planned last week. The move also came the same week government watchdogs wrote to Bharara, asking him to investigate whether Trump had violated the emoluments clause of the Constitution, which bars federal officials from taking payments from foreign governments.
Bharara. 48, has made a name for himself - both nationally and internationally, with several high-profile cases and investigations including foreign countries, insider trading, and those involving US politicians. It was his prosecution that convicted India-born former Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta for insider trading in 2012. New York Senator Charles Schumer said he was "troubled" to learn the reports of requests for resignations from the remaining US Attorneys, particularly that of Bharara. "The President initiated a call to me in November and assured me he wanted Mr Bharara to continue to serve as US Attorney for the Southern District," he said. "By asking for the immediate resignation of every remaining US Attorney before their replacements have been confirmed or even nominated, the President is interrupting ongoing cases and investigations and hindering the administration of justice," Schumer added.
