The republican President Donald Trump has set a pattern of attempting to develop a relationship based on a party’s loyalty to him and if he can’t be certain of that party’s loyalty, then that person is fired.
Remember that the FBI Director James Comey who was fired on May 9, 2017 by the president to impede the FBI’s probe into the president’s connections to the Trump-Russian saga, was not the president’s first firing. Remember that the president fired in January 2017, the acting US Attorney General Sally Yates when she attempted to warn the White House about compromising intelligence data regarding the then National Security Adviser General Mike Flynn. Then there was the firing of the US Attorney Preet Bhahara around March 2017.
The story that Preet Bhahara tells about his dismissal by the president sounds eerily similar to the tale told by the former FBI Director Comey…
On June 11, 2017, Sandhya Somashekhar of the Washington Post penned the following report, “Federal attorney says Trump’s contacts made him uncomfortable before he was fired.
“Preet Bharara, the former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York ousted by President Trump, said Sunday that he had become increasingly uncomfortable with Trump’s efforts to “cultivate some kind of relationship” with him and that his March firing came 22 hours after finally refusing to take a call from the president.”
“In an interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “This Week,” Bharara said Trump called him twice as president-elect, “ostensibly just to shoot the breeze.” The calls took place after a meeting at Trump Tower in November at which Bharara, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, said Trump asked him to stay on in the new administration.”
“The third call came in March, he said. After consulting with staff members, he said he decided not to return the call because he felt it was inappropriate.”
“It’s a very weird and peculiar thing for a one-on-one conversation, without the attorney general, without warning, between the president and me or any United States attorney who has been asked to investigate various things,” he said.”
“Mark Corallo, a spokesman for one of Trump’s attorneys, said on Twitter on Sunday that it would not be unusual for Trump to contact Bharara and that if he refused to take Trump’s call, “he deserved to be fired.” He accused Bharara of being a “resistance Democrat” with a political “axe to grind.”
All US Attorneys work for and at the pleasure of POTUS. There is nothing abnormal with the executive speaking directly with his employees.
“The Southern District post is a plum one for federal prosecutors. With oversight of investigations and prosecutions of cases in about New York City, including Wall Street, the office is staffed with 220 assistant U.S. attorneys, making it one of the largest in the country. During his tenure, Bharara was known as a tough prosecutors, going after politicians from both parties and attacking insider trading cases. But he was also criticized for getting no major convictions from the 2007 financial crisis.”
“In March, Bharara was one of 46 U.S. attorneys who were asked to resign, a customary act during a transition of White House administrations. However, Bharara refused to submit his resignation, so he was fired on March 11, a Saturday.”
“Previous holders of that U.S. attorney’s position have gone on to even more prominent posts. One was James B. Comey, who later became FBI director. Bharara said the story told by Comey about his own contacts with the president “felt a little bit like deja vu.” Based on Comey’s testimony last week before the Senate Intelligence Committee, “I think there’s absolutely evidence to begin a case” for beginning an investigation into whether Trump obstructed justice. “No one knows right now whether there’s a provable case of obstruction … there’s no basis to say there’s no obstruction.”
Gronda Morin 
Hi Gronda, another poignant piece. I just finished Barack Obamas “the audacity of hope” and felt good. Then watched a documentary on Stephen Bannon, and felt bad. I so appreciate your good works, my heartfelt positive thoughts for you and others like you presenting clarifying information. I am a simple man, but it is so obvious when timelines and factual points are made that make it almost unbelievable that the USA is in such a position. May the force be with you…
and hugs 🙂
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Dear Steele646,
It is distressing to me that we are in this position. It is worrisome because a lot of what the president is doing with the republican healthcare bill, his proposed budget, his withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord do not bode will for lifting up the working class folks as he promised.
This is where Steve Bannon plays such a prominent role as the ALT-RIGHT figure head. This tells me that the Trump administration will be working to to incite racism and other isms in this country to keep the president’s supporters in line.
We have already seen an escalation of hate crimes in the USA. THERE ARE SOME DARK ANGELS AT WORK HERE.
Hugs, Gronda
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Dear Mz. Gronda,
This whole saga is becoming even more bizarre by the day. Mark Corallo said “All US Attorneys work for and at the pleasure of POTUS. There is nothing abnormal with the executive speaking directly with his employees”.
All this does is reinforce the “suggestion” that our government is a business and needs to be run as one. To suggest that a CEO of any large business would simply pick up the phone and call a low level employee without first contacting that mans supervisor is simply absurd. Mr. Bharara was in a position that most Presidents would realize was considered to be, or simply accepted to remain above and beyond politics. Yes it would have been normal to contact the Attorney General or perhaps even his deputy directly, but to attempt to have private contact with a person such as Mr. Bharara, who was possibly in the middle of an investigation into tRumps foundation, is not normal nor should it be simply ignored as such. The fan boyz of tRump are saying this news is coming forth after Comeys testimony, however those of us who have followed the actions of this administration were well aware of the circumstances during the news cycle that they occurred in. Too bad that we have a legislative body that is remiss in their duty to the point that it verges on treason.
I might suggest that someone explain to Mr. Corallo that a CEO of a large business that was actually doing his job would not have time to call his low level employees just to shoot the “breeze”, he would instead be doing the job he was hired to do, and that would be to keep the business out of bankruptcy and solvent, of course that is a foreign concept to donnie tRump!
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Dear Crustyolemothman,
There are those who wish to normalize DDT’s bizarre behaviors, but most of us are not buying this. We are not being gaslighted into accepting his lies, alt facts and alt-reality..
The reality is that republican legislators are carrying the waters for DDT because they need him to accomplish their huge tax savings bills for the wealthy. DDT wants the sanctions lifted that are against Russia because he stands to benefit because of the Rosneft deal that was negotiated between it and Exxon.in 2012 but which has been on hold because of sanctions imposed on Russia in 2014.
Russia helped DDT win because it wants the sanctions lifted.
The meetings between Russian operatives and DDT surrogates probably are mostly about how to get those sanctions lifted.
DDT is catering to the alt-right to keep his base in line.
What he is not doing is lifting up or bettering the lives of the average Joe worker who voted for him.
This is the reality that we are facing.
Ciao, Gronda
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All bow to the Dear Leader !
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Dear Roger,
DDT only wishes that this were true because that is what he wants.
Ciao, Gronda
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And so, the web becomes even more tangled and it is up to the FBI, the Senate investigators, and Mueller to try to trace the strands and untangle the web so that we may see clearly what actually happened. Though most of us who think, read and research are pretty sure that the wrongdoing goes all the way to the top. Good post, Gronda! Hugs!!!
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Dear Jill,
The good news is that the FBI Special Counsel Robert Mueller III is taking the Trump-Russian investigation with the seriousness that it deserves. He is hiring the very best of the best. This means that no stone will be left unturned.
I would like to have the same level of faith with the US Senate and US House Intel Committee’s work but I don’t. I do not see how the members on these intel committees can claim that they are conducting a serious investigation when they are resisting from ordering a review of the president’s tax returns.
Hugs, Gronda
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Yes, I believe there was no better choice for Special Counsel than Mueller and I believe he will be fair. Unless, of course, Trump fires him, but if he does that, it is as good as an admission of guilt, I should think. Like you, I have little confidence in the investigations by either the House or the Senate, for there is no true bi-partisanship, and the House investigation was compromised already.
Hugs!!!!!
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