Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, is among the prosecutors whose resignation President Trump has ordered.

WASHINGTON (Diya TV) — Trump’s new attorney general Jeff Sessions has decided to do away with  Justice Department prosecutors who remained from former President Obama’s tenure, ordering 46 holdover United States attorneys to tender their resignations immediately — including Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan.

The firings caught everyone off guard, especially Bharara’s, who has a very positive public image for prosecuting corruption cases. Bharara met with then President-elect Donald Trump last November at his Trump Tower and told reporters after the president-elect asked him to stay on board, which he had planned on doing.

On Friday, Bharara was among federal prosecutors who received a call from Dana Boente, the acting deputy attorney general, instructing him to resign, according to a report from The New York Times. 

According to the report, Sarah Isgur Flores, a Justice Department spokeswoman, said in an email that all remaining holdover United States attorneys had been asked to resign, leaving their deputy United States attorneys, who are career officials, in place in an acting capacity.

“As was the case in prior transitions, many of the United States Attorneys nominated by the previous administration already have left the Department of Justice,” she said in the email. “The Attorney General has now asked the remaining 46 presidentially appointed U.S. Attorneys to tender their resignations in order to ensure a uniform transition.”

“Until the new U.S. Attorneys are confirmed, the dedicated career prosecutors in our U.S. Attorney’s Offices will continue the great work of the Department in investigating, prosecuting, and deterring the most violent offenders.”

It is not unusual for a new president to replace United States attorneys appointed by a predecessor, especially when there has been a change in which party controls the White House.

However, most presidents have taken a more gradual approach to the matter, while still keeping some inherited prosecutors in place, as many thought would be the case with Bharara. President Barack Obama, for example, kept Rod Rosenstein, who had been appointed by President George W. Bush. Still, in 1993, the Clinton administration fired all 93 United States attorneys on the same day.

But Bharara is among the most highest-profiles United States attorneys, with a portfolio of cases that span from Wall Street to the corruption cases of New York public officials. Bharara’s office is involved in a case related to a top adviser to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and is also probing allegations of pay-for-play around Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York.

The moves, ironically, come less than 24 hours after Fox News commentator Sean Hannity, who often speaks personally with President Trump, called for a “purge” of Obama appointees at the Justice Department on his show.

Diya TV has interviewed Mr. Bharara on a number of occasions. Here’s his speech from the 2015 AAPI convention in Orlando: