Bharara implies he was fired in order to stop 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 Moreland Commission must have felt like,” Bharara tweeted Sunday.

In 2013, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo created a commission to wipe out corruption in state politics.

A New York Times report in 2014 found the governor’s office often compromised the panel’s work, objecting to investigations into groups tied to Cuomo or issues that could have reflected poorly on him. He abruptly dissolved the panel less than a year from its inception.

Bharara was an outspoken critic of Cuomo’s decision. However, he announced in 2016 that there was not enough evidence to prove the closure was a federal crime.

Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., also suggested Sunday that Bharara’s firing could be related to potential investigations of Trump’s earnings from foreign sources.

“When they asked about the Emoluments Clause and possible violations of it and the U.S. attorney’s relationship to that, I think that had perhaps something to do with,” the ranking Democrat o the House Oversight Committee told ABC’s “This Week.”

Cummings said Trump had the right to fire the U.S. attorneys, but he was concerned about the possible motivations behind the firing of Bharara.

“I’m just curious as to why that is and certainly there’s a lot of questions coming up as to whether … Trump is concerned about the jurisdiction of this U.S. attorney and whether that might affect his future,” Cummings said.