Fired US Attorney Preet Bharara: Everything you need to know

According to the CNN, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York occupies one of the most powerful seats of prosecutorial power in the country, second only to that occupied by his nominal boss, the Attorney General of the United States, Jeff Sessions.

Bharara’s job was to “oversee the investigation and litigation of all criminal and civil cases brought on behalf of the United States in the Southern District of New York, which encompasses New York, Bronx, Westchester, Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland and Sullivan counties.” His job included supervising an office of more than 220 Assistant US Attorneys, who handle a high volume of cases that include domestic and international terrorism, narcotics and arms trafficking, white collar crime, public corruption, gang violence, organized crime, and civil rights violations.

Under Bharara the DOJ office successfully extradited and prosecuted one of the most notorious arms traffickers in the world, Viktor Bout. He also ensured that the man behind the Times Square bombing, Faisal Shahzad, was locked away for life. Bharara’s other high-profile prosecutions included the conviction of one of the al-Qaeda plotters behind the 1998 bombings of two American embassies in East Africa. In addition, his office convicted scores of insider trading defendants, including Raj Rajaratnam and Rajat Gupta.

The DOJ office also achieved the largest forfeiture in US history – $7.2 billion from the estate of Jeffrey Picower.

Bharara and India 

Bharara was born in Firozpur (Sikh father and Hindu mother) in 1968 and moved with his parents to New Jersey when he was 2 years old. He received his B.A magna cum laude from Harvard College in 1990 and his JD from Columbia Law School in 1993, where he was a member of the Columbia Law Review.  In 2012, he was named one of Time Magazine’s most influential people.

Despite his accomplishments, Bharara was criticised for his involvement in the then Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade case. He was accused of being more American than an American by the Indian media. “It was not the crime of the century but a crime nevertheless. That’s why the State Department opened the case; that’s why the State Department investigated it; that’s why the career agents in the State Department asked the career prosecutors in my office to approve criminal charges,” Bharara had said regarding the case.

FILE PHOTO: Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, attends a news conference in New York City, U.S. May 19, 2016. (Source: Reuters/File Photo)

“Indian critics were angry because even though I hailed from India, I appeared to be going out of my way to serve the interests of America, which is odd because I am an American and the words ‘United States’ are actually written in my title,” he said. “That is where your focus should be always — being the guy who does his job. Whether you are an associate, a law clerk, an assistant DA, a public defender, or anything else.

Nothing else matters but doing your job and doing it well. Every day. Even when it’s hard. Even when it’s tedious. Even when it’s dull. Even when the work seems small and beneath your brand-name schooling and God-given talent. It means being the guy who does his job, even when no one is looking and no one will know the good ideas came from you. If you do that, not only the next job, but your career, will take care of itself.” He had said his Harvard law commencement speech, 2014.

Trump administration

When he was the president-elect,  Donald Trump met Bharara and reportedly asked him to continue in his role.  He was however fired just days after Trump claimed that Obama tapped his telephones during the US presidential election. The sacking lead to speculation that Trump may have become increasingly wary of Bharara’s close relationship with his mentor, Senator Chuck Schumer. Bharara is closely associated with, Schumer, who pushed Obama to nominate him to be the top federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York. And Trump decided to nominate someone of his choice rather the one recommended by Schumer.