Thursday, December 1, 2016

A very good pick by Donald Trump


I'm very pleased to see that Donald Trump is showing signs of the right sort of bipartisanship in his appointments as President-Elect.

Preet Bharara, the gungho Manhattan federal prosecutor, has agreed to “stay on” as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District after President-elect Donald Trump offered him the gig during a meeting Wednesday afternoon at Trump Tower in Midtown.

“We had a good meeting. I agreed to stay on. I have already spoken to Sen. [Jeff] Sessions, who is as you know is the nominee to be the attorney general. He also asked that I stay on, and so I expect that I will be continuing to work at the southern district,” Bharara said in the lobby of Trump’s Fifth Avenue skyscraper following their 40-minute powwow.

Bharara, who earned the moniker “The Sheriff of Wall Street” for his aggressive prosecution of bankers, also heaped praise on his own office. “The president-elect asked, presumably because he’s a New Yorker and is aware of the great work that our office has done over the past seven years,” Bharara said.

The meeting came on the one-year anniversary of Bharara’s winning a corruption conviction against former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, indicating that Bharara was trying to highlight his successes to keep his job.

. . .

Silver aside, Bharara has won convictions against some of New York’s most notorious white collar villains, corrupt politicians and international terrorists, including ex-NY Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and al Qaeda terrorist Khalid Al-Fawwaz.

. . .

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) was one of the first to toot Bharara’s horn to Trump — and even put the president-elect directly in touch with the prosecutor to set up the meeting, a source said.

. . .

Republicans — fully aware of ongoing investigations focusing on Gov. Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio’s administrations — were thrilled that Trump was retaining Bharara.

. . .

Bharara sees himself as a non-partisan law enforcement official, which likely appeals to Trump’s anti-establishment sensibility, people who know the prosecutor said.

There's more at the link.

An equal opportunity prosecutor, going after the corrupt and the criminal no matter what side of the political aisle they sit on?  Oh, yes, please!  We need more US Attorneys like that.  I don't care how Mr. Bharara votes, provided he does an honest, effective, non-partisan job.  Clearly, President-elect Trump feels the same way.  That's exactly as it should be.

Peter

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, nobody is perfect but when his office attempted to subpoena and gag Reason.com for bogus reasons it became disturbing:

https://reason.com/blog/2016/11/30/preet-bharara-the-guy-who-subpoenaed-rea

Murphy's Law said...

A good choice indeed.

Anonymous said...

Sounds encouraging. So far, his various choices seem balanced between getting things done and attempting to give the Dems time to cool off. Did you hear his speech last night? Great stuff. He knows how to work a crowd, far more personality then the Hildabeast. If he continues to work for U.S. jobs staying here, he MIGHT even win over some of the media.

I'm impressed with Trump's picks so far except for Patreus for Secretary of State. Patreaus's anti-gun stance is personal choice, except that post gives him a vote on U.N. resolutions which declare firearms for general population is strongly discouraged.