Preet Bharara, five years into his tenure as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, in New York.
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) — The morning after he received his walking orders from attorney general Jeff Sessions and president Donald Trump, former U.S. attorney Preet Bharara shared a very cryptic message via his Twitter page with the American public.
By the way, now I know what the Moreland Commission must have felt like.
A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York said he could not elaborate on Bharara’s tweet, and Bharara himself has offered no further public comment on the subject. This has left many familiar with the Moreland Commission’s history to speculate about the presidential parallels.
The reference to the corruption-fighting commission, which New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo unexpectedly abolished in 2014, could simply mean the 48-year-old attorney knows what it’s like to walk away when there’s still important work to be done. Or it could read as accusatory towards President Trump, of trying to axe an investigation before his friends become casualties of its outcome.
Gov. Cuomo created the commission following a string of corruption scandals involving state lawmakers. The Moreland Commission to Investigate Public Corruption, as it was formerly known, was formed in July 2013 to root out all such corruption in New York’s politics and government operations. It was named for a 1907 law known as the Moreland Act, which gives the governor broad authority to investigate state agencies. The panel’s 25 members included current and former district attorneys from across the state who were empowered to issue subpoenas and compel testimony.
The panel issued a first draft of its findings in December 2013 and vowed to “proceed with ongoing investigations as we continue to follow the money.” Those investigations hadn’t reached their conclusion when, four months later, Cuomo abruptly dismantled the commission.
Cuomo said, at the time, that an agreement of modest ethics reform by the legislature eliminated the state’s need for the commission. But a subsequent New York Times investigation revealed that Cuomo’s aides undermined the commission as the panel’s subpoenas started getting close to the governor’s office. The timing suggested Cuomo was concerned that the commission might dig up unwelcome facts about his administration.
During disbandment, the Moreland Commission handed over documents, computer files and other materials from its investigation to Bharara.
The documents he received would aid him in the successful prosecution of longtime Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos. Both were indicted by Bharara’s office and convicted on corruption charges.
