GUNSLINGER: US Attorney Preet Bharara could be primed to run for office, New York-area politicos are saying. (
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He was Born to Run!
Manhattan federal prosecutor Preet Bharara was at a Bruce Springsteen concert last October when the Boss called out to him.
“This one’s for Preet Bharara!” Springsteen shouted, before singing, “Send the robber barons straight to hell.”
And Bruce — who has never singled out superfan Gov. Chris Christie the same way — isn’t the only one singing Bharara’s praises. The rising celebrity of the US attorney has insiders wondering what office he’ll take on next.
The 44-year-old crime fighter was on a roll last week after busting state Sen. Malcolm Smith and City Councilman Dan Halloran in a bribery scheme to allegedly get Smith the GOP nod for mayor. Days later, he cuffed Bronx Assemblyman Eric Stevenson for allegedly pocketing more than $20,000 in bribes to help developers open adult day-care centers.
“So here we go again. This is getting to be something of a habit,” Bharara said as he announced the charges against Stevenson. Since taking the helm of the Southern District in 2009, Bharara has gone from hardly pronounceable name to sheriff of Wall Street to albatross of Albany.
His high-profile crackdown on insider trading resulted in 71 convictions, including those of Rajat Gupta, a former Goldman Sachs director, and billionaire hedge-fund manager Raj Rajaratnam.
When Bharara was 2, his father moved the family out of India’s impoverished Punjab region to leafy Monmouth County, New Jersey.
The lawman’s recent successes have observers wondering if he will take a political path — one blazed by a Southern District predecessor, Rudy Giuliani.
Bharara is a political animal. After graduating from Harvard and Columbia Law School, he worked as volunteer for the public-advocate campaign of Mark Green in 1993.
He was a private attorney before becoming an assistant US attorney in 2000, prosecuting organized crime in the Southern District. He left to be Sen. Chuck Schumer’s chief counsel in 2005.
Four years later, the rising star was designated US attorney in Manhattan.
“He has guts,” one former prosecutor said. “He is willing to take good risks in that he’s not afraid of having the assistants bring cases, even the tough ones.”
Bharara lives in Westchester with his wife and three kids. He reveals little about his personal life. A Democrat, Bharara has also been mentioned as a possible successor to his boss, Attorney General Eric Holder. Political operatives say he could run for governor of New York or New Jersey or for the US Senate.
When his sapphire eyes made the cover of Time magazine last year for his success in the insider-trading cases, some staff said he hogged the spotlight.
His spokeswoman, Ellen Davis, shrugged off rumors about political office but a former employee said Bharara is too savvy to let the opportunity pass.
“You look at the way he’s conducting himself, and he doesn’t look like a guy who plans to join a law firm,” one former employee said. “He’s clearly thinking about another 20 years of public life.”