Preet Bharara says Trump attempted to build relationship before firing him
Former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara says that before his termination, President Trump attempted to establish a friendly relationship over the course of several "uncomfortable" phone calls.
Bharara, speaking on ABC's "This Week", said that he had several contacts with Mr. Trump during the presidential transition, including a meeting at Trump Tower, during which Mr. Trump had asked Bharara to stay on as U.S. attorney.
Bharara described two follow-up phone calls with the president-elect as "unusual," saying that the repeated contacts between former FBI Director James Comey and Mr. Trump before Comey's firing sounded like "deja vu" to him. Bharara attended Comey's testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee Thursday.
"The number of times that President Obama called me in seven-and-a-half years was zero. The number of types I would have been expected to be called by the president of the United States would be zero because there has to be some kind of arm's length relationship given the jurisdiction that various people had," said Bharara.
Bharara went on to say that the phone calls were to just "shoot the breeze"and to make sure he was doing okay, but he said they made him feel a "bit uncomfortable." A follow-up call took place again two days before the inauguration and a third time after Mr. Trump became president, a call Bharara said he refused to accept.
"I was in discussions with my own folks, and in reporting the phone call to the chief of staff to the attorney general I said, it appeared to be that he was trying to cultivate some kind of relationship," said Bahara.
The former U.S. attorney added, "It's a very weird and peculiar thing for a one-on-one conversation without the attorney general -- without warning -- between the president and me or any United States attorney who has been asked to investigate various things and is in a position hypothetically to investigate business interests and associates of the president."
Bharara said that some 22 hours later, after the call with Mr. Trump, he was asked to resign along with 45 other attorneys. To this day, Bharara says he has no idea why he was fired.
"You know, it doesn't bother me. I'm living a great good life, and very happily. But I have no idea."
When asked if he believed he was terminated over the fact that he had jurisdiction over Trump Tower, Bharara replied, "I've lived long enough to know that anything is possible."
Bharara, who is now currently distinguished scholar at New York University, attended Comey's testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing Thursday.