Preet Bharara, former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, is joining CNN as a senior legal analyst, Politico reports.
Bharara, who was fired from his position three months into President Donald Trump's term, said in the first episode of his new podcast "Stay Tuned with Preet," that if he hadn't been fired he thinks Trump would have asked him "to do something inappropriate."
"I believe based on the information that we have on the president talking to [former FBI Director] Jim Comey relating to [former national security adviser] Michael Flynn, the information about the president talking to [U.S. Attorney General] Jeff Sessions about the case of [former Sheriff] Joe Arpaio, and how he wanted both of those cases to go away," Bharara said in the episode released Wednesday.
"Had I not been fired, and had Donald Trump continued to cultivate a direct personal relationship with me, it's my strong belief at some point, given the history, the president of the United States would've asked me to do something inappropriate," he added. "And I would've resigned then. I don't know for a fact, but that's my strong belief."
CNN also has hired Walter Shaub, former director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics who said when he resigned in July that the government is "pretty close to a laughingstock" on ethics, as a contributor.
"It's hard for the United States to pursue international anti-corruption and ethics initiatives when we're not even keeping our own side of the street clean," he told The New York Times. "It affects our credibility."
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