Former Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara — breaking his silence for the first time since he got the boot from President Trump — is clearly still smarting over his firing.
Bharara, 48, griped to the New York Times that he was axed after having been asked by Trump to remain in the position back in November.
“[It’s] a direct example of the kind of uncertain helter-skelter incompetence, when it comes to personnel decisions and executive actions, that was in people’s minds when this out-of-the-blue call for everyone’s resignation letter came,” Bharara said.
The Barack Obama appointee was one of 46 US attorneys who were asked to step down March 10.
While the process is one that typically takes place when a new president comes in, Bharara had been asked by Trump on Nov. 30 to stay in his post. Because of this, he told the Times, it came as a complete shock to him when he received the call from a top Justice Department official to resign.
He said his previous meeting with Trump had gone great — with the president joking, “This guy gets better press than me.”
It wasn’t until the March move that he realized things weren’t as pleasant as they seemed, he said.
Between Bharara’s meeting with Trump in November and when he was forced to step down, the president reportedly reached out to the Manhattan US attorney at least three times.
Two weeks after speaking with him at Trump Tower, Bharara got a message saying the president had called.
“The consensus was that I can return the call,” he told the Times. “And just to be certain that we don’t talk about any case.”
Trump was apparently just “checking in” at the time, Bharara said, and wanted to know if he had spoken with Jeff Sessions, then-Republican senator from Alabama who is now the US Attorney General.
On Jan. 18, Bharara said the president called again and briefly spoke to some of his senior aides. He reportedly explained that he was working on his inaugural address and wanted to express a theme of unity.
The third call came March 9, causing Bharara to believe that it may have been an attempt to let him know that he was on the chopping block. But he refused to return the call, out of fear that it would be unethical and spark outrage.
“I do not think it is wise for a sitting president to try cultivating a personal telephonic relationship with a sitting US attorney, especially one with a certain jurisdiction,” Bharara explained, describing how Trump Tower lies within his district.
“I mean, either way,” he said, “people would say: ‘All we know is the president called Preet. Preet only has his job because the president bizarrely asked him to stay. And you know what? Preet didn’t charge that guy. Preet didn’t open that investigation. They must have made a deal.’”
On the day he was let go, Bharara said he was so shocked by the decisions that he literally had to ask acting deputy attorney general Dana J. Boente if he was being fired.
“‘I want to know: Is the president firing me?’” he remembered saying. “‘That’s all. It seems like a very easy question.’”
Bharara is scheduled to speak Thursday night at The Cooper Union in Manhattan — his first public appearance since the dramatic showdown with Trump.
He is expected to talk about his his high-profile canning as well as what he plans to do in the future.
Additional reporting by Kaja Whitehouse