US prosecutor Bharara says he was fired after not resigning

NEW YORK (AP) -- An outspoken Manhattan federal prosecutor known for crusading against public corruption announced he was fired Saturday after he refused a request a day earlier to resign.

Preet Bharara, 48, made the announcement on his personal Twitter account after it became widely known hours earlier that he did not intend to step down in response to Attorney General Jeff Sessions' request that leftover appointees of former President Barack Obama quit.

"I did not resign. Moments ago I was fired," Bharara said in the tweet. "Being the US Attorney SDNY (Southern District of New York) will forever be the greatest honor of my professional life."

Just over three months ago, then-President-elect Donald Trump asked Bharara to remain as US attorney in Manhattan and Bharara told reporters after the Trump Tower meeting that he had agreed to do so.

Bharara was appointed by former President Barack Obama in 2009. In frequent public appearances, Bharara has decried public corruption after successfully prosecuting over a dozen state lawmakers, Democrats and Republicans alike.

Sessions' decision to include Bharara's name on the list of 46 resignations of holdovers from the Obama administration surprised Manhattan prosecutors.

While it is customary for a new president to replace virtually all of the 93 US attorneys, it often occurs at a slower pace. Sessions lost his position as US attorney for the Southern District of Alabama in a similar sweep by then-Attorney General Janet Reno in 1993.

After Bharara met Trump on November 30, he emerged from the meeting to say Trump had asked him to remain in the job he has held since his appointment in the summer of 2009 and he had agreed.

Bharara, who was once landed on the cover of Time magazine as the man who is "busting Wall Street" after successfully prosecuting dozens of insider traders, has in the past few years set his sights on prosecuting over a dozen state officeholders -- Democrats and Republicans -- including New York's two most powerful lawmakers.

It also recently was revealed that Bharara's office is investigating the financial terms of settlements of sexual-harassment claims against Fox News by its employees.