--- title: Preet Bharara Fired After Refusing Sessions' Order to Resign description: Preet Bharara announced that he was fired from his role as United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York on Saturday canonical: https://time.com/4699086/us-attorney-preet-bharara-fired/ author: Aric Jenkins article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-11T20:49:47.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T03:47:56.237Z article:section: Politics og:title: U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara Says He Was Fired By Justice Department After Refusing to Resign og:description: President Trump asked Bharara to stay in his role in November. Jeff Sessions had other ideas. og:url: https://time.com/4699086/us-attorney-preet-bharara-fired/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta8edfd3759356367/6988be084dd215e44aefe18e/preet-bharara.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: President-Elect Trump Holds Meetings At Trump Tower In New York og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara Says He Was Fired By Justice Department After Refusing to Resign twitter:description: President Trump asked Bharara to stay in his role in November. Jeff Sessions had other ideas. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta8edfd3759356367/6988be084dd215e44aefe18e/preet-bharara.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara Says He Was Fired By Justice Department After Refusing to Resign > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME D.C. Brief: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition D.C. Brief is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. Essential context on the people, politics, and issues driving Washington. D.C. Brief goes beyond the Washington headlines to explain the politics, personalities and power dynamics shaping what happens next. 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Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Aric Jenkins](https://time.com/author/aric-jenkins/) ## Aric Jenkins Mar 11, 2017 8:49 PM UTC  Preet Bharara speaks briefly to reporters at Trump Tower, on Nov. 30, 2016 in New York City. Preet Bharara speaks briefly to reporters at Trump Tower, on Nov. 30, 2016 in New York City. Drew Angerer—Getty Images by [Aric Jenkins](https://time.com/author/aric-jenkins/) ## Aric Jenkins Mar 11, 2017 8:49 PM UTC Preet Bharara, the high-profile Manhattan federal prosecutor, said he was fired from his role as United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York on Saturday. The move comes, Bharara said via a tweet on Saturday, after he refused to submit a letter of resignation following Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ [order to all 46 U.S. Attorney holdovers from Barack Obama’s administration to step down. ](http://time.com/4698752/jeff-session-us-attorneys-obama/) “I did not resign. Moments ago I was fired. Being the US Attorney in SDNY will forever be the greatest honor of my professional life,” Bharara tweeted. > [](https://twitter.com/PreetBharara/status/840645773985492992) In November, Bharara met with [President Donald Trump](http://time.com/4696428/donald-trump-war-state-government/) following his election. Trump, who was then President-elect, asked Bharara to remain in his role as U.S. Attorney, Bharara told reporters at the time. “The President-elect asked, presumably because he’s a New Yorker and is aware of the great work that our office has done over the past seven years … whether or not I’d be prepared to stay on” and “I agreed,” Bharara said in November, [according to the New York _Daily News_](http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/trump-meet-manhattan-attorney-preet-bharara-source-article-1.2892952). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4699086/us-attorney-preet-bharara-fired/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4699086/us-attorney-preet-bharara-fired/"},"headline":"U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara Says He Was Fired By Justice Department After Refusing to Resign","datePublished":"2017-03-11T20:49:47.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T03:47:56.237Z","description":"\"Being the US Attorney in SDNY will forever be the greatest honor of my professional life\"","url":"https://time.com/4699086/us-attorney-preet-bharara-fired/","keywords":["Law","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta8edfd3759356367/6988be084dd215e44aefe18e/preet-bharara.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Aric Jenkins","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/aric-jenkins/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta8edfd3759356367/6988be084dd215e44aefe18e/preet-bharara.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President-Elect Trump Holds Meetings At Trump Tower In New York","caption":"Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, speaks briefly to reporters at Trump Tower, on Nov. 30, 2016 in New York City.","creditText":"Drew Angerer—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/law/","name":"Law"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4699086/us-attorney-preet-bharara-fired/","name":"U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara Says He Was Fired By Justice Department After Refusing to Resign"}}]}] ```