BY RAINER TURIM | More than 900 people packed The Cooper Union’s Great Hall last Thursday to hear Preet Bharara, the recently axed U.S. attorney general for the Southern District of New York. But the crowd figure was in dispute — well, not really, but Bharara couldn’t help but take a poke at the new president who unceremoniously fired him.
Bharara, who served from 2009 until last month, started his lecture off by declaring the East Village audience was actually “1.25 million,” referencing Donald Trump’s inauguration crowd-size follies.
Laura Sparks, Cooper Union’s new president, started things off in her welcoming remarks by calling Bharara a “legal trailblazer.”
For Bharara, it was his first major lecture since he was removed from office last month.
Although he was a hard-nosed prosecutor who took down both Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Dean Skelos, the Senate majority leader, Bharara has a surprisingly light sense of humor.
“It just figures, for the first time in eight years, I’ve literally shown up for a event where I can’t arrest anyone,” he quipped.
Earlier that same day, The New York Times published an article calling his firing “a direct example of the kind of uncertain helter-skelter incompetence” of the Trump administration.
Sparks stated that Bharara’s character, and particularly the news surrounding him in the last months, inspired the school to host the lecture.
“Cooper Union’s Great Hall has been the birthplace of profound social movements and a platform for honest discourse for over 150 years,” she said, “and lectures like those in our John Jay Iselin Memorial series are part of that tradition. Preet Bharara’s unique perspective at this moment in time helps to move forward our national conversations about truth, fairness, integrity and justice. The Great Hall will be an important venue for these and other conversations critical to our national discourse in the years ahead,” she added.
Sparks called the lecture an example of “quintessential Cooper Union.”
Recalling his ouster from office, Bharara said, “I was asked to resign, I refused. I insisted on being fired, and so I was. I will tell you that I don’t really understand why that was such a big deal, especially to this White House. I had thought that’s what Donald Trump was good at. I had thought that’s in part how he became president,” he said, apparently referencing The Donald’s signature line from his reality-TV show, “You’re fired!”
The ex-U.S. attorney fondly recalled his last eight years.
“The greatest professional honor of my life,” he said. “I had the best team in the world.”
He explained that one topic he left unfinished, however was gang violence.
“Is there lots more still left to do?” he asked. “Absolutely, yes.”
Bharara went on to comment on the state of Rikers Island, calling the plan to shut down the prison, which has been endorsed by the mayor, “a spectacular plan.”
He said he was most proud of “maintaining a certain tradition and culture of doing what’s right” while he was A.G.
He stressed that no U.S. attorney should feel like “a rubber stamp for the White House,” adding, “That’s how every U.S. attorney should feel,” meaning that maintaining independence is paramount.
Bharara expressed caution about the future, indicating that the American people will need to be vigilant with this new administration.
“Sometimes people lie, and people need to be aware of that,” he warned.
“We choose what news to believe,” he added. “We choose who to trust.”
The former lawman’s mother and father were present at the Cooper Union lecture.
“I am the son of a father who came from virtually nothing,” Bharara said, referring to his humble roots in India.
Bharara referred to a recent hate crime in Kansas that saw an East Indian man gunned down after his assailant demanded to know if his “status was legal.” He sadly reflected that people from his native country were not being welcomed and accepted into America, a place where his profession had been all about upholding justice.
The anti-corruption crusader concluded his talk on an inspirational high note.
“Let us unrig the system,” he proclaimed. “Remember the forgotten. Lift the underdog. Drain the swamp. Let us do all those things, but let’s actually do it — not just talk about it. And let’s do it with goodwill and in good faith. Let’s do it as idealists, not cynics. Let’s do it with facts, not falsehoods. And let’s do it in the spirit of hope and harmony, with love and not hate.”
Bharara then fielded audience questions in a Q & A session.
“Why do you think you were fired?” he was asked.
“Beats the hell out of me. I don’t know,” Bharara said, bemusedly. “The president of the United States is allowed to have the services of whoever he or she wants. And after the election, one presumed there would be a changing of the guard, whether it be U.S. attorneys or ambassadors or anything else.”
Bharara went on to recount the confusing nature of his firing, given that Trump initially had assured Bharara he would remain as U.S. attorney, yet then summarily fired him.
“I’m not making any accusation about anyone,” Bharara said, “but I’ve lived long enough to know that you want the record to be clear.”
