At time of firing, Preet Bharara was prosecuting a guy who operated out of Donald Trump’s building
Over the past forty-eight hours it’s become equally clear that Donald Trump had no legitimate reason for suddenly firing U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, and a number of possible illegitimate personal motivations for having fired him. But Palmer Report has uncovered something that hits too close to home – quite literally – to be ignored. At the time of his firing, Bharara was prosecuting one of Donald Trump’s own most prominent tenants.
Last year Preet Bharara brought charges against Reza Zarrab, an Iranian businessman who primarily worked out of Turkey but who was allegedly conducting illegal business while he was in New York City (source: New York Times). Zarrab is still sitting in a prison cell in the United States, having been refused bail, awaiting a trial date whose last known scheduled start date is October of 2017 (source: Turkish Minute). If Bharara had remained on the job, he would have ostensibly been the lead prosecutor in Zarrab’s upcoming trial.
As it turns out, Reza Zarrab – before he was busted and imprisoned by Preet Bharara – had been operating his business out of Trump Towers Istanbul (source: Wall Street Journal). That’s right, Bharara was in the process of prosecuting one of Donald Trump’s most infamous tenants. And now Bharara’s Trump-appointed replacement – whom we believe will be Mike Marc Mukasey – will be in a position to allow Zarrab out on bail, or perhaps even drop the charges against him entirely.
As we’ve been reporting throughout the weekend, Donald Trump had a number of illegitimate motivations for wanting Preet Bharara gone. A watchdog group had just asked Bharara to investigate Trump’s financial corruption in New York. Bharara had recently busted a Russian spy ring, which goes against Trump’s pro-Putin mantra. And Bharara was investigating Trump’s favorite cable news network, Fox News, at the time Sean Hannity urged Trump to fire him. But Bharara’s imprisonment of one of Trump’s own tenants can’t be overlooked as a potential motivation. Contribute to Palmer Report
