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Elder Patriot – Attorney General Jeff Sessions has finally announced an investigation into the use of federal money to fund radical leftwing advocacy groups. In making the announcement Sessions cited that at least six billion dollars was funneled into what was essentially a slush fund for Obama’s army of street activists. It’s almost a certainty that that amount is going grow significantly. The groups receiving the money included La Raza (now UnidosUS), NeighborWorks America, National Community Reinvestment Coalition, Operation Hope, Black Lives Matter, and a spin-off of Acorn The Mutual Housing Association of New York, among numerous other extremist groups....

(Reuters) - U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Wednesday appointed 17 current and former federal prosecutors as interim U.S. Attorneys in jurisdictions around the country, the Department of Justice said. The interim posts are for 120 days unless those holding them are re-appointed by a court or officially nominated by President Donald Trump and confirmed by the U.S. Senate, a Justice Department official said. It is unclear if those named on Wednesday will also be nominated. Some may face political opposition, as U.S. senators traditionally have some say in the nominations of U.S. Attorneys who would serve within their states....

Benjamin Wittes, a friend of former FBI Director James Comey, said that he's unable to say how far President Trump is willing to push the legal bounds of the presidency because it would involve "looking into his soul" — and he's not quite sure Trump has one. Asked by former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara on his podcast "Stay Tuned with Preet" how far he thinks Trump is willing to stretch the constitutional constraints of his office, Wittes said he would need to look into Trump's soul to answer that question. "I'm hesitant to answer that question because it involves looking...

One of the attorneys general who has sought probes against the Trump administration has accepted large individual campaign donations from an energy tycoon with connections to Russian President Vladimir Putin. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has accepted more than $60,000 in small donations from Leonard Blavatnik, a Ukrainian-born energy billionaire with ties to Russian oligarchs, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation examination of the Democrat’s financial disclosure reports . Blavatnik plowed $25,000 into Schneiderman’s political war chest in January of 2017 – his generous contribution was one of the largest individual donations given to the New York Democrat...

Former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara slammed President Trump Thursday, saying the problem people have with Trump isn’t about his policies or ideology, but his “lack of decency.” “Much of the issue with Trump is not about party, policy or ideology, but lack of decency, honesty, character, temperament, adulthood, shame,” Bharara, who was fired by Trump in March, tweeted. Much of the issue with Trump is not about party, policy or ideology, but lack of decency, honesty, character, temperament, adulthood, shame. — Preet Bharara (@PreetBharara) June 30, 2017 Bharara’s tweet comes after Trump faced widespread criticism for early-morning tweets on Thursday...

Former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara revealed on Sunday that he received a handful of "unusual" phone calls from Donald Trump after the November election that made him feel uncomfortable, and said he was fired after declining to take the third call. Speaking on ABC News' "This Week" in his first televised interview since Trump fired him in March as the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, Bharara said he believed Trump's calls to him violated the usual boundaries between the executive branch and independent criminal investigators. "It's a very weird and peculiar thing for a one-on-one conversation without the attorney general,...

'Release all the tapes – I'm good with it!' Comey dares Trump to release recordings of their talks to corroborate his notes as he tells senators: 'Lordy, I hope there are tapes!' Donald Trump tweeted last month that Jim Comey had 'better hope that there are no "tapes" of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!' Comey said during his Thursday hearing: 'I've seen the tweet about tapes. Lordy, I hope there are tapes!' 'The president surely knows if he taped me. And if he did, my feelings aren't hurt: Release all the tapes. I'm good with it,'...

Instanbul's chief prosecutor's office has launched the mother of all probes and Sen. Chuck Schumer, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, and ex-CIA director Brennan are among those named for their alleged links to cleric Fethullah Gulen.

A high-ranking official from Turkey’s second-largest state-owned bank was arrested in New York City March 27. On the orders of the acting US attorney for the Southern District of New York, Joon H. Kim, FBI agents arrested Mehmet Hakan Atilla, Halkbank’s vice president for international banking, for violating the US-led sanctions against Iran. The press release from Kim’s office accused Atilla with participating “in a years-long scheme to violate American sanctions laws by helping Reza Zarrab, a major gold trader, use U.S. financial institutions to engage in prohibited financial transactions that illegally funneled millions of dollars to Iran.” Zarrab, a Turkish citizen...

Former Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, whom President Donald Trump fired earlier this month, will join New York University's law school on April 1 as a distinguished scholar in residence, the school announced on Tuesday. In a statement provided by the school, Bharara said he was honored to join NYU, and welcomed the opportunity "to continue addressing the issues I so deeply care about - criminal and social justice, honest government, national security, civil rights, and corporate accountability, to name a few." Bharara was fired by Trump on March 11 after refusing to step down. He had been among 46...

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has reportedly hired a prosecutor to examine the activities of the Trump administration. Schneiderman has tapped public-corruption expert Howard McMaster from the office of former Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, The Wall Street Journal reported. Bharara was fired by Trump last week even though he was in the middle of a number of investigations, including one allegedly involving stock trades by Trump’s Health And Human Services Secretary Tom Price. Schneiderman spokesman Eric Soufer confirmed McMaster’s hiring, and told the Journal that McMaster will work on a range of “civil and criminal investigations ... including...

President Donald Trump's firing of U.S. attorneys across the country was terrible, Democrats and many TV talking heads and other media sages agreed. And this wholesale firing was offered up as yet another example of Trumpian imperial whim breathing its hot Big Orange authoritarian breath down upon the necks of the people. "One would have thought they'd have handled it better," a worried Wolf Blitzer at CNN said of the Trump White House to his colleagues on a panel. "They're off to a very slow start," said CNN's Jim Acosta of the Trump administration. "So it's not surprising they'd do...

Before the inauguration, Donald Trump and Preet Bharara met and an agreement was struck that would keep US Attorney Bharara in his current position in New York under a new Trump administration. New York Senator Charles Schumer was instrumental in getting Bharara appointed to that position and in return was asked from time to time to do favors for the senator and his allies. Up until recently, President Trump had no idea what was really going on. Once President Trump’s staff understood the quid pro quo, they had no choice but to ask for Bharara’s resignation.

New York Senator Charles Schumer was instrumental in getting Bharara appointed to that position and in return was asked from time to time to do favors for the senator and his allies. Up until recently, President Trump had no idea what was really going on. Once President Trump’s staff understood the quid pro quo, they had no choice but to ask for Bharara’s resignation. In 2015, Puerto Rico defaulted on $70 billion in municipal bonds. Those involved panicked. There was ample evidence that the issuing agencies were technically bankrupt when they issued the bonds and that they purchased fraudulent credit...

Video Conservative filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza is not upset about President Donald Trump ( forcing U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara out of office.) That’s because Bharara, who ran the Southern District office in New York, prosecuted D’Souza for felony election fraud in 2014, which led to a plea bargain and a sentence of eight months in federal prison. Bharara was portrayed by some as a political martyr because he was “fired” after he refused the Trump administration’s request to resign along with the remaining 45 Obama appointees in the U.S. Attorney slots. On "Fox & Friends" this morning, D'Souza ripped Bharara as...

Former U.S. attorney Preet Bharara Sunday implied that he was fired by President Trump in order to kill an investigation. Bharara, whose district encompassed Manhattan, was one of 46 U.S. attorneys across the country who had been asked by the Trump administration to resign Friday afternoon. He refused to resign, setting up a public showdown with the Trump administration. A day later, he announced via Twitter that he had been fired. Then on Sunday, he tweeted a suggestion that his firing had something to do with an effort to squash an investigation. "By the way, now I know what the...

Prosecutor Preet Bharara was fired by the attorney general a day after he refused to return a phone call from President Trump, a report alleges. An assistant to the president of the United States called Bharara’s office Thursday, saying the president wanted to talk, but Bharara refused citing Department of Justice rules, the New York Times reported. On Friday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions notified all 46 federal prosecutors, who were appointed by President Obama and still active, to leave. Bharara was one of those asked to resign. When Bharara got the call Thursday, he informed an aide to Sessions that...

Note: The following text is a quote: Hassan Nemazee Pleads Guilty in Manhattan Federal Court to $292 Million Bank Fraud PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that HASSAN NEMAZEE pleaded guilty today to charges of defrauding Bank of America, N.A. ("BofA"), Citibank, N.A. ("Citibank"), HSBC Bank USA, N.A. ("HSBC"), and a longtime friend and business associate of a total of more than $290 million in loan proceeds. NEMAZEE entered his guilty plea before United States District Judge SIDNEY H. STEIN in Manhattan federal court. According to the superseding Information, filed today, to...

Ten days into his tenure as United States attorney in Manhattan, Preet Bharara saw his political and prosecutorial worlds collide. He convened a meeting to discuss a sensitive investigation of a Democratic donor with ties to Senator Chuck Schumer of New York. Mr. Bharara had been Mr. Schumer's chief counsel, and Mr. Schumer had recommended Mr. Bharara for the prosecutorial post. At the meeting, Mr. Bharara asked his prosecutors if there was enough evidence to make a case against the donor, Hassan Nemazee. One of the prosecutors, Daniel W. Levy, who is now in private practice, would recall years later...

There may have been much more to the termination of US attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara, than meets the casual glance.According to Reuters, which cites a law enforcement source, two days before U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara was fired on Saturday, the high-profile New York prosecutor declined to take a call from President Donald Trump.  Bharara reportedly contacted the DOJ for authorization to speak to the president on Thursday - one day before the DOJ announced it had requested all Obama-era attorneys to hand in their resignations. When he apparently did not receive it, Reuters...