Former FBI director James Comey testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday regarding Russian hacking in the U.S. presidential election. In his testimony, he expressed grave concerns about President Donald Trump who allegedly asked for his loyalty and to let the Michael Flynn investigation go, before firing him. The Globe and Mail quoted Comey as saying about Russian interference,“It’s about as un-fake as you can possibly get,”

Trump contact made me uncomfortable: Preet Bharara

Former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara was also present during the Comey hearings at Capitol Hill.

He described hearing James Comey’s account of his conversations with President Trump and able to relate to it, he said it felt “a little bit like deja vu," the New York Times reported.

Preet Bharara worked for the Southern District of New York as a District Attorney with President Barack Obama for over seven years before President Trump fired him. This came as a surprise to him as President Trump had hinted that he would continue to work in the Trump administration during a meeting at Trump Tower in November.

“He called me in December — ostensibly just to shoot the breeze — and asked me how I was doing and wanted to make sure I was O.K. It was a little bit uncomfortable, but he was not the president, he was only the president-elect,” Preet Bharara said while describing his first contact with President Trump.

Two days later, President Trump called to “check in and shoot the breeze.” This was followed by a final call on March 9 when he was asked to resign. Preet Bharara did not respond to the final call and his refusal to take President Trump’s call might have resulted in his abrupt firing.

“To this day I have no idea why I was fired,” Preet Bharara said during an interview with George Stephanopoulos on "ABC News This Week" on June 11.

Like James Comey, former Attorney Preet Bharara describes his experience with President Trump as uncomfortable. Trump was trying to “cultivate some kind of relationship” with him that made him report one of the phone calls to Attorney General Jeff Sessions. After 22 hours of his refusal to take a call from the president, Preet Bharara was ousted from his job.

His recollections combined with James Comey’s testimony made him realize there is a pattern to President Trump's behavior. During his testimony, Comey said he started taking notes because of the nature of the president. “I was honestly concerned he might lie about the nature of our meeting.” Shortly after James Comey’s hearings, President Trump accused him of telling lies to the Senate Committee.

'There's absolutely evidence to begin a case'

Preet Bharara also said that “there's absolutely evidence to begin a case of obstruction.

There’s no basis to say there’s no obstruction. The fact that you have authority to remove somebody from office does not automatically immunize that act from criminal responsibility," he said, speaking of President Trump.

Mark Corallo, a spokesperson for President Trump’s personal attorney Marc Kasowitz, defended the president on Twitter, calling Preet Bharara “a resistance Democrat” who "deserved to be fired," for not taking the President's call.

Following James Comey's hearing, Preet is the second person in one week who said that President Trump makes federal employees uncomfortable during conversations with him.
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