New York federal prosecutor Preet Bharara said on March 11 that he had been fired, one day after the Justice Department asked him and 45 other federal prosecutors who had served under President Obama to submit their resignations. (Reuters)
By Devlin Barrett, Sari Horwitz and Robert Costa March 11 at 3:08 PM
Preet Bharara, one of the most high-profile federal prosecutors in the country, said he was fired Saturday after refusing to submit a letter of resignation as part of an ouster of the remaining U.S. attorneys who were holdovers from the Obama administration, according to people familiar with the matter.Bharara’s dismissal was an about-face from President Trump’s assurances to the Manhattan-based prosecutor in November, weeks after the election, that he wanted him to stay on the job following a meeting at Trump Tower, according to Bharara.
Two people close to Trump said the president’s chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions wanted a clean slate of federal prosecutors and were unconcerned about any perception that the White House changed its mind about Bharara. The removal of former president Barack Obama’s federal prosecutors is about asserting who’s in power, the two said.
Checkpoint newsletter
Military, defense and security at home and abroad.
The departure of Bharara, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, capped a confusing sequence of events, beginning Friday, when acting deputy attorney general Dana Boente began making calls to 46 prosecutors asking for their resignations by the end of the day. Requests for resignation are a normal part of a transition of power from one administration to another, although both the Bush and Obama administrations let their U.S. attorneys leave gradually.
[The brash New York prosecutor who’s indicting left and right ]
Bharara after meeting with Trump in 2016: ‘I agreed to stay on’
Play Video0:38
After meeting with President-elect Donald Trump at Trump Tower on Nov. 30, 2016, Preet Bharara, the former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said he agreed to stay remain in his role in the Trump administration. (C-SPAN)
During Friday’s call with Bharara, the New York prosecutor asked for clarity about whether the requests for resignations applied to him, given his previous conversation with Trump, and did not immediately get a definitive answer, according to a person familiar with the exchange.
ADVERTISING
When asked Friday whether Bharara was also being asked for a resignation letter, one White House official not authorized to speak publicly said, “Everybody’s gone,” and would not engage further on the issue.
On Saturday morning, when the administration had still not received Bharara’s resignation, Boente attempted to call the U.S. attorney to find out why, but the two men did not immediately connect, according to people familiar with the discussions.
When they finally did speak shortly before 2:30 p.m., Boente informed Bharara that the order to submit his resignation indeed applied to him because he was a presidentially appointed U.S. attorney, according to a Justice Department official with knowledge of the conversation.
Bharara asked Boente if he was firing him and Boente replied that he was asking him to submit his resignation, the official said.
Minutes later, Bharara announced on Twitter that he was out. “I did not resign,” Bharara said. “Moments ago I was fired. Being the US Attorney in SDNY will forever be the greatest honor of my professional life.”
Bharara sent an email to his staff, asserting again that Boente had removed him from his job.
Sessions asks 46 Obama-era U.S. attorneys to resign
Play Video0:51
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has asked the remaining 46 chief federal prosecutors left over from the Obama administration to resign “in order to ensure a uniform transition,” the Justice Department said (Reuters)
“Needless to say it is personally very sad for me,” the note said. “This is the greatest place on Earth and I love you all. Even on a day when your U.S. Attorney gets fired it is still Thanksgiving because you all still get to do the most honorable work there is to do.”
Bharara added that the office “could not be in better hands” than with the deputy U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Joon H. Kim, whom he called “a tremendous leader and public servant and who loves the office just as much as I do.”
Within the Justice Department, some are questioning whether a recent phone call from Trump to Bharara may have contributed to the decision to remove the Obama holdovers, according to a person familiar with the matter.
On Thursday, a White House aide called and left a message for Bharara, saying the president wanted to speak with him, though the prospective topic of discussion was unclear. Bharara consulted his staff and determined that it would probably be a violation of Justice Department protocols for him to speak directly to the president, this person said. That protocol exists in order to prevent political interference — or the appearance of political interference — with Justice Department work.
Bharara then contacted the chief of staff for the attorney general, Jody Hunt, told him of his own determination, and the two agreed that it would be a violation of the Justice Department protocol for Bharara to call the president back. Bharara then called the White House staffer who had left the message and said he wouldn’t be talking to the president, and explained why, this person said.
It’s unclear whether the Trump call and its aftermath had anything to do with Friday’s decision.
Bharara, who was born in India and came to the United States as a child, had a particularly powerful perch in the criminal justice system. The Southern District of New York has 220 assistant U.S. attorneys, making it one of the largest federal prosecutors’ offices in the country.
During his tenure, Bharara indicted 17 prominent New York politicians for malfeasance — 10 of them Democrats. Along with his bipartisan prosecutions, Bharara developed a reputation for being tough on insider trading, although he was criticized for the lack of prosecutions that followed the financial crisis.
Bharara was an outspoken man in a job that has been held by vocal and politically aspirant predecessors, including former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and FBI Director James B. Comey.
There is no indication that the ouster of Bharara stems from a disagreement about a particular case or investigation. While the FBI has been conducting a counterintelligence inquiry looking for evidence of contacts between agents of the Russian government and Trump campaign advisers, and a former campaign adviser to Trump has been part of an investigation into possible overseas corruption, there have been no signs that Bharara’s office has been involved in either of those probes or any other inquiries that might touch on the president or people close to him.
[Preet Bharara said he wanted to be a U.S. attorney “forever.” Well, he was just fired.]
On Wednesday, watchdog groups asked Bharara to probe whether Trump has received payments or other benefits from foreign governments through his business interests in violation of the Constitution’s emoluments clause, which prohibits top officials from receiving favors or payments from foreign governments.
The president complained on Twitter earlier this month that Obama had ordered wiretapping of Trump Tower during the election season — an accusation that multiple federal law enforcement officials have said is untrue — partly because presidents cannot order the FBI to wiretap Americans, and also because no such surveillance was undertaken. But Bharara was not drawn into that debate, which principally revolved around the Justice Department and FBI headquarters.
Initially after Trump won the presidency, it looked as if Bharara’s position was safe. Trump brought up Bharara’s name in November during a phone conversation with Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), whom the president-elect was calling to congratulate on becoming the leader of the Senate Democrats, according to people familiar with the matter. In that conversation, Trump said he was thinking of keeping Bharara in his job, these people said. Schumer praised Bharara and Trump then arranged a meeting with Bharara at Trump Tower.
During the conversation, Trump told Bharara to call Sessions, his nominee for attorney general, who also asked Bharara to stay, people familiar with the conversation said.
When Bharara was leaving, according to one person, he asked the president-elect what he should tell the reporters in the lobby. Trump told Bharara to tell them he was staying on, this person said.
Bharara told reporters afterward that the president-elect, “presumably because he’s a New Yorker and is aware of the great work that our office has done over the past seven years,” asked to meet with him and discuss whether he would remain in his position.
“We had a good meeting,” Bharara said. “I agreed to stay on.”
Matt Zapotosky, Rosalind S. Helderman, Cleve R. Wootson Jr., Amy B Wang and Ellen Nakashima contributed to this report.
Author: Aylin D. Miller
-
New York federal prosecutor Preet Bharara says he was fired by Trump administration
-
UK: Israel’s ambassador sorry over ‘take down’ Sir Alan Duncan comment
Israel’s ambassador to the UK has apologized after a senior member of his staff was secretly filmed saying he wanted to “take down” Foreign Office Minister Sir Alan Duncan.
Israeli Embassy senior political officer Shai Masot made the comment in footage filmed in a London restaurant and obtained by the Mail on Sunday.
He told a reporter that Sir Alan was creating “a lot of problems”.
Ambassador Mark Regev said this was not the embassy or government’s view BBC reported.
Secret recording
The conversation involved Mr Masot and Maria Strizzolo, an aide to education minister Robert Halfon, the former political director of Conservative Friends of Israel, as well as an undercover reporter.
It was recorded in October 2016 as part of an investigation by Al Jazeera.
The BBC understands that Ms Strizzolo has resigned from the civil service.
Mr Masot asked her: “Can I give you some names of MPs that I would suggest you take down?”
Ms Strizzolo replied that all MPs have “something they’re trying to hide” and Mr Masot responded by saying “I have some MPs”, adding “she knows which MPs I want to take down” before specifying “the deputy foreign minister”.
Sir Alan, who has described expanding Israeli settlements as a “stain on the face of the globe”, was seen as more of a problem than Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson – who was “basically good”, according to Mr Masot in a transcript of the conversation.
“He just doesn’t care. He is an idiot but has become minister of foreign affairs without any responsibilities. If something real happened it won’t be his fault… it will be Alan Duncan.”
Sir Alan launched a scathing attack on Israel in 2014, when MPs backed Palestinian statehood, deeming Israeli settlements as an “act of theft”.
“Occupation, annexation, illegality, negligence, complicity – this is a wicked cocktail which brings shame on Israel,” he told BBC Radio 4’s World At One programme.
Sir Alan, who was special envoy to Yemen and Oman at the time, said “international law must be upheld” to prevent further settlements.
Labour has demanded an immediate inquiry into the extent of Israeli “interference” in British politics.
Shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry said improper interference was “unacceptable whichever country was involved” adding Mr Masot’s comments were “extremely disturbing”.
She said it was a national security issue and that the Foreign Office’s response was “not good enough”.
‘Completely unacceptable’
Crispin Blunt, Foreign Affairs Select Committee chairman, said Mr Masot’s “apparent activity” was “formally outrageous and deserving of investigation”.
But Sir Craig Oliver, David Cameron’s former communications director, said the undercover video was a “classic piece of mischief-making” by the Mail on Sunday.
He told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show that Mr Masot’s comments should be viewed as “extremely comic” rather than “extremely chilling”.
“The Israeli government just wants to shut [the story] down,” he added. “It’s embarrassing”.
Lord Stuart Polak, director of Conservative Friends of Israel, said: “We utterly condemn any attempt to undermine Sir Alan, or any minister, or any member of Parliament.”
Ms Strizzolo told the newspaper that her conversation with Mr Masot was “tongue-in-cheek and gossipy”.
In a statement, the Israeli Embassy said it “rejects the remarks concerning minister Duncan, which are completely unacceptable”.
“The comments were made by a junior embassy employee who is not an Israeli diplomat, and who will be ending his term of employment with the embassy shortly,” it said.
“Ambassador Regev on Friday spoke with minister Duncan, apologised for the comments and made clear that the embassy considered the remarks to be completely unacceptable.”
A Foreign Office spokesman said: “The Israeli Ambassador has apologised and is clear these comments do not reflect the views of the embassy or government of Israel.
“The UK has a strong relationship with Israel and we consider the matter closed.”
-
Benjamin Netanyahu accused of offering newspaper owner commercial favours in return for positive coverage
Israeli Prime Minister already being investigated for accepting gifts of champagne and cigars but denies any wrongdoing
According to the Independent Benjamin Netanyahu has been caught on tape offering commercial favours to an Israeli newspaper owner in return for more positive coverage, reports suggest, in a development commentators are describing as an “earthquake” in the police investigation.
The Israeli Prime Minister, who is being investigated for alleged corruption offenses, is said to have been recorded proposing a commercially beneficial deal to Arnon Mozes, the owner of one of Israel’s biggest newspapers, Yedioth Ahronoth.
He has denied any wrongdoing.
Israel’s Channel Two television station claimed Mr. Netanyahu had offered to reduce the circulation of Israel Hayom, a pro-Netanyahu newspaper that is owned by U.S. billionaire and Republican Party donor Sheldon Adelson, if Mozes instructed Yedioth Ahronoth to be more favourable towards the Prime Minister.
Cutting the circulation of Israel Hayom, which is distributed free of charge, would be of clear benefit to Mr Mozes because it is the main competitor of his newspaper in the battle for advertising revenues.
The conversation is reported to have taken place several months ago, although the precise date is unknown. Reports suggest the recording was made by Mr Mozes.
Mr Netanyahu is already under investigation for alleged corruption relating to receiving illegal gifts and donations. He has disputed the allegations and his lawyer said receiving gifts from friends is not illegal.
The Prime Minister is accused of accepting thousands of pounds worth of gifts, including cigars and champagne, from Israeli billionaire Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan. Reports suggest Mr Netanyahu lobbied US Secretary of State John Kerry on Mr Milchan’s behalf while the producer was attempting to acquire a new US visa.
Mr Netanyahu has denied the allegations. Sources said he told his ministers: “This is wrong, incessant pressure from the media on law enforcement. They release balloons and the hot air comes out of them time after time. That will be the case here too.”
Israeli news outlets quoted Mr Netanyahu’s lawyer, Yaakov Weinroth, as saying: “Any reasonable person knows that there is nothing remotely criminal involved when a close friend gives his friend a gift of cigars.”
The Israeli Prime Minister has been interviewed twice by police in the last week and is reported to have been surprised by the evidence against him.
“He didn’t expect it”, a source who knows the Prime Minister well told Haa’retz.
The evidence of the conversation between Mr Netanyahu and Mr Mozes is said to have been passed to the Israeli Attorney General, Avichai Mandelblit, by investigators early last year. It is unclear what caused the delay in interviewing Mr Netanyahu, although there are suggestions state prosecutors were not clear whether a deal of the nature allegedly proposed by the Prime Minister was actually illegal.
The conversation between the pair was reported by Israeli media to have been initiated by Mr Netanyahu in an attempt to convince the newspaper publisher not to print a story about his son, Yair. The nature of the story is unclear.
Mr Netanyahu is also accused of having accepted a accepted €1 million (£850,000) from Arnaud Mimran, a French businessman currently serving eight years in prison for committing a huge carbon-tax fraud. Mimran claimed during his trial that he had given the money to Mr Netanyahu during the 2009 Israeli election campaign – something the politician has consistently denied.
Last year a spokesperson for the Israeli Prime Minister said: “Mr. Netanyahu received no prohibited contribution from Mimran. Any other claim is a lie.”
The Prime Minister did, however, admit accepting $40,000 (£33,000) from Mimran in 2001.
Following reports last month that investigators had been given permission by Mr Mandelblit to open a formal investigation into Mr Netanyahu, a spokesperson for the Prime Minister told Haaretz the allegations were “all nonsense”.
He said: “Since Netanyahu’s victory in the last elections and even before, hostile elements have used heroic efforts to attempt to bring about his downfall, with false accusations against him and his family.
“[The allegation] is absolutely false. There was nothing and there will be nothing.”
Mr Netanyahu is not the first Israeli prime minister to be accused of corruption and his allies have pointed out that such accusations have often come to nothing. Other charges have been proven, however: Ehud Olmert, for example, is currently serving an 18-month prison sentence after being convicted of breach of trust and bribery. Mr Olmert held office from 2006 to 2009 before giving way to Mr Netanyahu.
-
Civil servant resigns after discussing how to ‘take down pro-Palestine MPs’ with Israeli diplomat Footage secretly recorded by a media outlet appeared to show the civil servant discuss plans to ‘take down’ Tory MP
A former Westminster official has resigned after footage emerged appearing to show her discuss “taking down” pro-Palestinian MPs.According to Independent Maria Strizzolo, who is a former chief of staff to Conservative MP Robert Halfon, was recorded talking to Israeli embassy official Shai Masot.
The footage, obtained by Al Jazeera, shows Mr. Masot say: “Can I give you some MPs that I would suggest you would take down?” In response, Ms Strizzolo appears to laugh, before responding: “Well you know, if you look hard enough, I’m sure there is something that they’re trying to hide.”
Ms. Strizzolo has reportedly now resigned from her post at the Skills Funding Agency.
Israel’s ambassador to the UK Mark Regev has apologized for Mr. Masot’s comments, describing them as “unacceptable”.
Labour has demanded an investigation to probe alleged Israeli “interference” in British politics.
During the conversation between the pair, which took place at the Aubaine restaurant near the Israeli embassy in Kensington, Mr. Masot also described Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson as “an idiot”.
Ms. Strizzolo told the Mail on Sunday that her conversation with Mr. Masot was “tongue-in-cheek and gossipy”, adding: “Any suggestion that I … could exert the type of influence you are suggesting is risible.”
She said she knew Mr. Masot “purely socially and as a friend. He is not someone with whom I have ever worked or had any political dealings beyond chatting about politics, as millions of people do, in a social context.”
-
Policeman ‘killed Greek Ambassador’ at wife’s request- BBC Reports
Police in Brazil say the Greek ambassador to the country was killed by a local police officer who was having an affair with the envoy’s wife.Kyriakos Amiridis had been missing since Monday. His body was found in a burnt-out car on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro on Thursday.
Police say the ambassador’s Brazilian wife, Francoise Amiridis, plotted the murder with her lover.
Sergio Gomes Moreira Filho confessed to strangling him to death, police said.
Ms. Amiridis, 40, has been detained along with Mr. Moreira, 29, and his cousin, Eduardo Melo.
Mr. Melo is said to have been paid about 80,000 reais ($25,000; £20,000) to act as a lookout.
‘Crime of passion’
The three suspects have been questioned and will be held in police custody for another 30 days.
Investigator Evaristo Pontes Magalhaes described the murder as “a tragic, cowardly act,” which police are treating as “a crime of passion”.
“Francoise initially denied the facts. She said she had nothing to do with that. We managed to make her see that she had no alternative and that there was no point in continuing to deny it,” said Mr. Magalhaes at a press conference.
“She fell into contradictions, burst into tears and began to say that the police officer [Sergio Moreira] had carried out her husband’s murder,” he added.
Mr. Magalhaes said Mr. Moreira had a fight with the ambassador and ended up killing him when he went to confront the diplomat about claims of violence against his wife.
He said he acted in self-defence. But Brazilian police have dismissed his statement.
They say the policeman’s cousin confessed to moving the ambassador’s body and gave full details of the plot to murder Mr. Amiridis, implicating both Mr. Moreira and Mrs. Amiridis.
Charred body
The 59-year-old ambassador had traveled from Brasilia to the city of Nova Iguacu, north of Rio, to spend the Christmas and New Year holidays there with his wife and her parents.
The couple had been living together for 15 years and their daughter is 10 years old, local reports said.
Mrs. Amiridis reported her husband missing on Wednesday.
She told police that he had left on Monday in a car he had rented. The burnt-out vehicle was found on Thursday under a flyover on one of the main access roads to Rio with a body inside.
The body was burned beyond recognition, but police said it was that of Mr. Amiridis.
Investigators also said that they had found blood stains on the sofa in the house where the couple was staying and say he was probably stabbed to death there.
Mr. Amiridis served as consul in Rio de Janeiro between 2001 and 2004 and returned to the country as the ambassador earlier this year.
-
Body found in burnt-out car in Rio ‘believed to be Greek ambassador’
Kyriakos Amiridis last seen on Monday and license plates on the car match his rental vehicle, according to reportsBrazilian police suspect a body discovered inside a charred vehicle in Rio de Janeiro is Greece’s ambassador to Brazil who went missing three days ago, it has been reported.
A police spokesman could not be immediately reached for comment on the report by TV channel Globo.
Ambassador Kyriakos Amiridis, 59, was last seen on Monday evening leaving the home of friends of his Brazilian wife in a suburb of Rio’s metropolitan area, police had said earlier on Thursday. A state police official said the ambassador’s wife reported him as missing on Wednesday.
Globo showed images of the burnt-out white car in the Nova Iguaçu neighborhood where the ambassador went missing. The station reported that the license plates on the car matched those of Amiridis’s rental vehicle.
An official at the Greek embassy in Brasília would not confirm the ambassador was missing, saying only that he was on vacation in Rio and expected to return to the capital on 9 January.
According to Guardian, Rio police inspector Evaristo Pontes had earlier told the Folha de São Paulo newspaper that he did not believe the ambassador was kidnapped. “We’re following some leads, but not that one,” he said. “If it had been [a kidnapping], those who took him would have made contact by now.”
Amiridis previously served as Greece’s consul general in Rio from 2001 to 2004. More recently he was Greece’s ambassador to Libya from 2012 until he took the top Brazil post at the beginning of 2016.
Brazil’s foreign ministry said it had no comment on the case, other than to say it was being fully pursued by police, while Greece’s foreign ministry had no comment.
