ATTORNEY GENERAL/DEMS/NEW YORK/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Preet Bharara is seeing all the texts, phone calls and DMs urging him to run for New York attorney general, including from some top operatives and Democratic donors. He’s hearing it from people coming up to him on the street. And though Bharara is leaning against making a play for the job, according to three people close to him, the onetime powerhouse U.S. attorney fired by Donald Trump pointedly hasn’t said no, either. He wants to see how the next few weeks play out…The pleas are partly a response to the sainted status that Bharara has achieved since he forced President Donald Trump to fire him last year by refusing to resign. But they’re also a sign of dissatisfaction with how the field of candidates for the plum law enforcement post is shaping up. The key qualifications are less about legal skills and more about who can navigate muddy New York politics compounded by the backroom machinations of Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Then there’s the acknowledgment, mostly in quiet conversations among New York political insiders, that for an office with such a staggering portfolio, the list of announced and potential candidates doesn’t quite represent the best of New York City’s world-class roster of legal talent. In addition to rooting out corruption on Wall Street and in Albany, the New York AG’s office has taken the lead in suing the Trump administration on multiple fronts.”
-Edward-Isaac Dovere and Jimmy Vielkind, “Preet Bharara being drafted for war on Trump,” Politico, May 16, 2018 8:28 pm