Preet Bharara paints target on Trump while attending Comey hearing

Bharara, who was fired in March by Trump along with 46 other U.S. attorneys, had a seat in the room courtesy of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, according to multiple reports. Bharara was a former chief of staff to Schumer. Since his firing, he has been a vocal critic of Trump on Twitter.

Comey spoke at length about his past private conversations with Trump, which included allegations of a loyalty pledge and Trump asking him to back off his investigation of former national security adviser Mike Flynn.

At one point Comey responded to a past tweet from Trump, which said Comey “had better hope” there were no tapes of his conversations with Comey. Comey quipped, “Lordy, I hope there are tapes!”

Bharara then took to Twitter to interject his own one-liner: “We can all agree with Jim Comey that, Lordy, we hope there are tapes.”

Later, Bharara shared his “main Comey hearing takeaway.” “POTUS improperly said drop Flynn case & only refutation is 2nd-hand, error-filled stmt from paid atty Kasowitz,” he tweeted, referring to a statement read by Trump’s attorney Marc Kasowitz, in which he suggested Comey be investigated for leaking privileged information about his conversations at the White House.

Though it was hotly speculated Trump would live-tweet Comey’s testimony, Trump remained silent on social media. He delivered a speech Thursday afternoon to the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority Conference in Washington, D.C., as Comey was still testifying on Capitol Hill and didn’t mentioned Comey.

The president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., did live-tweet the Comey hearing, claiming the testimony showed his father did not attempt to obstruct the FBI’s investigation into Flynn.

Bharara later embraced a Democratic line of attack, criticizing House Speaker Paul Ryan in how he defended Trump when he told reporters that Trump is “just new to this” in regards to the Flynn issue.

“Silly. DJT knew protocol well enough to attack, rally after campaign rally, the breach of “protocol” in Clinton’s tarmac meeting with Lynch,” Bharara tweeted.

He echoed a retort from Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who said of Ryan’s explanation: “That doesn’t fly.”