Fired U.S. Attorney Was Probing if Fox News Illegally Obtained Journalists’ Phone Records...

stringer bell
stringer bell Members Posts: 26,212 ✭✭✭✭✭
http://lawnewz.com/uncategorized/fired-u-s-attorney-was-probing-whether-fox-illegally-obtained-journalists-phone-records-report-says/
Former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, who was fired by Attorney General Jeff Sessions after he refused to resign, was probing whether Fox News executives illegally obtained reporters’ phone records, and committed fraud by hiding financial payments to some women who accused former CEO Roger Ailes of sexual harassment, according to a report by New York Magazine reporter Gabriel Sherman. Sherman reports, “Sources told me that that prosecutors have been offering witnesses immunity to testify before a federal grand jury that’s already been impaneled.”

Last month, an attorney for former Fox News personality Andrea Tantaros said in court, as first reported by The Hollywood Reporter, that his client had gotten a subpoena from the U.S. Attorney’s office.






President Donald Trump reportedly told Bharara earlier this year that he would be kept on during the new administration. But, something sparked a change of course late last week. Attorney General Jeff Sessions sent out a letter Friday asking for the resignations of Bharara and 45 other Obama-era U.S. Attorneys who were still in place.

The New York Times reports that Marc Mukasey, the son of former Attorney General Michael Mukasey, is being considered to replace Bharara as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. As Sherman notes, Mukasey also “happens to be” Ailes’s personal lawyer.


In a previous statement from February, a Fox News spokesperson said, “Neither FOX News nor 21CF has received a subpoena, but we have been in communication with the U.S. Attorney’s office for months — we have and will continue to cooperate on all inquiries with any interested authorities.” The network declined to comment on that latest reporting.

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  • stringer bell
    stringer bell Members Posts: 26,212 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited March 2017
    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/13/nyregion/federal-inquiry-of-fox-news-moves-to-a-grand-jury-but-without-preet-bharara.html?_r=0
    Federal Inquiry of Fox News Moves to a Grand Jury, but Without Preet Bharara

    The political drama around the federal courthouse in Manhattan did not end with the sudden, unexplained turnabout of President Trump in firing Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York.

    While that prominent post always gets attention, one candidate frequently mentioned as a possible successor to Mr. Bharara could sharpen the scrutiny to new levels: Marc L. Mukasey, a former prosecutor who now works in white-collar criminal defense.

    As it happens, Mr. Mukasey has represented Roger E. Ailes, the former chairman of Fox News, who has long had a mogul-to-mogul relationship with Mr. Trump.

    Whomever Mr. Trump nominates to replace Mr. Bharara will inherit an investigation of Fox News.

    A federal grand jury sitting in Manhattan is expected to soon hear testimony from at least two witnesses to testify in coming days about business practices at Fox News when it was led by Mr. Ailes, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. Mr. Ailes, who was forced out in July amid revelations of multiple accusations of sexual harassment, has denied those charges.

    The current inquiry, which began in September and appears to be in an early stage, may be focused, at least in part, on settlement payments, a person with knowledge of the matter said.

    One of those subpoenaed, according to the two people, is Mark Kranz, the former chief financial officer for Fox News who oversaw the network’s finances when it paid millions of dollars in settlements. Mr. Kranz was appointed to his position by Mr. Ailes in 2004, and resigned last year, a week after Mr. Ailes had done so.

    Mr. Ailes helped prepare Mr. Trump ahead of debates in last year’s campaign. In 2014, Mr. Trump intervened in a dispute between Mr. Ailes and a former aide who said he had damaging information about Mr. Ailes and the network.

    Mr. Trump negotiated a settlement on behalf of Mr. Ailes, and later boasted of his work, telling the journalist Gabriel Sherman, “When Roger was having problems, he didn’t call 97 people, he called me.”

    The existence of the grand jury investigation of Fox News was disclosed in a state court proceeding last month by Judd Burstein, a Manhattan lawyer representing a former daytime host for Fox, Andrea Tantaros, who said her career suffered after spurning advances from Mr. Ailes. She charged that the network operated like a “sex-fueled, Playboy Mansion-like cult.”


    The second witness subpoenaed by the grand jury is not Ms. Tantaros, Mr. Burstein said, but another client he had previously represented and refused to name.

    Fox News did not have any comment on Monday. In February, the network said in a statement that it had been in communication with federal prosecutors for months, and would cooperate with the inquiry, the first known criminal investigation associated with the Fox harassment claims.

    It is customary for presidents to replace the United States attorneys, but it appeared that Mr. Bharara would stay on: He met with Mr. Trump after the election and said he was asked to remain as the head of the office. But on Friday, the Trump administration instructed nearly all federal prosecutors appointed by President Obama, including Mr. Bharara, to resign.

    Mr. Bharara refused. He said in a Twitter post that he was fired on Saturday, and did not resign.

    Mr. Burstein said he was perplexed by the shifts at the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan.

    “The firing of Preet, who did an extraordinarily evenhanded job is not remarkable — it’s just more the way it happened after he was told that he would stay on,” Mr. Burstein said. “The timing with respect to the Ailes stuff is troubling. Stopping this investigation would destroy the credibility of the U.S. attorney’s office, which has always been the crown jewel of federal prosecutors’ offices.”

    He said that if Mr. Mukasey were to be appointed to replace Mr. Bharara, he would certainly have to recuse himself from any involvement in a case that touched a former client.

    In an email, Mr. Mukasey, a former federal prosecutor who is a partner in Greenberg Traurig, said he would have no comment.

    Mr. Mukasey’s firm has handled real estate development matters for the family of Jared Kushner, who is married to Mr. Trump’s daughter Ivanka. Among his partners is Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former New York mayor and vigorous advocate for Mr. Trump during the campaign.

    Mr. Mukasey is the son of Michael Mukasey, a former federal judge and former attorney general under President George W. Bush, and longtime friend of Mr. Giuliani’s. Asked last month about the possibility of stepping into the United States attorney’s office, Mr. Mukasey told the New York Law Journal that he loved his job, but, “If asked to serve my country, that is something I take very seriously.”
  • janklow
    janklow Members, Moderators Posts: 8,613 Regulator
    you know why it's dumb to remove Bharara from a Republican POV? because that dude hates Cuomo and all the rest of those smug NY elites.

    ...so i guess it would make sense if Trump wanted him out for THAT reason...