When Attorney General Jeff Sessions sensed that his decision to recuse himself from the Department of Justice probe on Russia caused friction with President Donald trump, he offered to resign. There is no update if the president accepted his resignation, but his alleged offer seems a wise choice other than being Fired and generating controversy like what happened to his predecessor.
The first two firing of key government official created a huge headache and potentially placed Trump at risk of violating the law. As a result, the country is now divided after the Thursday Senate testimony of former FBI Director James Comey.
On Sunday, former AG Preet Bharara told ABC News of the similar circumstances he was terminated by the ex-host of reality show “The Apprentice.”
Unreturned calls
Bharara recalled that after the November election, Trump made several unusual phone calls to him. Like Comey’s case in which Trump wanted the FBI to end its investigation of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, Bharara felt that Trump’s calls to him breached the boundaries between the president and independent criminal investigators, Reuters reported.
The first two calls were just idle talk, or as the AG described it, “ostensibly just to shoot the breeze.” Since Trump was not yet the president, but the already declared winner of the 2016 election, Bharara felt uncomfortable answering further calls from the real estate billionaire.
Two days after Trump’s inauguration as the 45th president of the U.S., the AG received the third call from Trump which he chose to ignore.
There is evidence to begin a case against Trump
The new president sent him a text message, but after deliberations, he felt it was not proper to return the call. Twenty-two hours later, Bharara and 45 other government officials appointed during the term of Trump’s predecessor, President Barack Obama, were asked to resign.
The AG recalled that during the eight-year period that Obama was president, he never got a direct call from the 44th U.S. president.
Bharara, who led the filing of major corruption cases during the previous administration, said there is absolutely evidence to warrant the filing of obstruction of justice charges against Trump, The New York Daily News reported.
“There’s no basis to say there’s no obstruction,” the former AG told “This Week” on ABC News. It was Bharara’s first time to speak about his termination since Trump ousted him in March.
He explained that even if the president has the authority to fire people, it does not provide him automatic immunity from criminal responsibility for that act. He noted that while Trump had the authority to fire Comey for any reason, the president had no solid evidence that corruption was the reason he booted the FBI head. Bharara said the pressure on Comey to drop the investigation of Flynn is enough reason to initiate a case against Trump.
