U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has asked the remaining 46 chief federal prosecutors left over from the Obama administration to resign, including Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara who had been asked to stay on in November by then President-elect Donald Trump.
A Justice Department spokeswoman confirmed the resignation requests applied to Bharara. However, it was not immediately clear if all resignations would ultimately be accepted.
Bharara was unsure where he stood because he did not know if the person who contacted him was aware that Trump had asked him to remain in office, according a source familiar with the matter. Bharara's office handles some of the most critical business and criminal cases passing through the federal judicial system.
U.S. attorneys are political appointees, and the request from Trump's Justice Department is part of a routine process. Not every new administration replaces all U.S. attorneys at once.
Bharara met with Trump in Trump Tower on Nov. 30. Afterward, Bharara told reporters the two had a "good meeting" and he had agreed to stay on.
Now some will argue that this is business as usual, but really it's not eve close.
So WHY would the Trump administration eject all of these clearly qualified professionals all at once which threatens the country's ability to prosecute ongoing cases?
Well this might be a hint.
Courtesy of the Washington Post:
A trio of watchdog groups has asked the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York to investigate whether President Trump has received payments or other benefits from foreign governments through his business interests in violation of an obscure clause in the U.S. Constitution.
The request, sent by letter Wednesday morning to U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, is a novel strategy by ethics critics who have been pressing Trump to comply with the Constitution’s “emoluments clause,” which prohibits top officials from receiving payments or favors from foreign governments. Trump’s business empire stretches across the globe. The letter was sent six weeks after one of the groups filed a lawsuit in federal district court making a similar claim.
Gee, what another coinky dink.
So would the Trump administration really fire all of these prosecutors simply to stop one of them from investigating them?
I don't believe we even have to ask that question.
Source http://ift.tt/2md9UOV
