In Episode Five of the How To Academy Podcast, Matthew Stadlen meets the former US district attorney who successfully prosecuted some of the most high-profile crimes in America.

Preet Bharara served as US Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 2009 to 2017, overseeing the investigation and litigation of all criminal and civil cases. Along the way, Preet gained notoriety as the ‘Sheriff of Wall Street’, was banned from Russia by Vladimir Putin and earned the distinction of being one of the first federal employees fired by Trump. His prosecutions inspired the hit TV show Billions and The Americans, and he famously took down the man responsible for the largest case of insider trading in history.

In this wide-ranging conversation he takes us into the gritty, tactically complex, often sensational world of America’s criminal justice system – and gives us his inside take on the Mueller Report and President Trump.

Praise for Preet Bharara’s Doing Justice: A Prosecutor’s Thoughts on Crime, Punishment and the Rule of Law:

‘The man who terrifies Wall Street’ – New Yorker

‘[Preet] has somehow managed to be incredibly smart, principled, independent and hilarious all at the same time’ – James Comey

‘Doing Justice is simply, utterly brilliant. Preet Bharara expertly weaves real-life stories of law and disorder into a compelling examination of our collective understanding of justice. This is no greatest hits parade of a prosecutor boasting about the bad guys he’s locked up; it is a clarion call for the rule of law, bursting with humility and humanity. A desire for fairness – to suspects and defendants as well as the victims – is the touchstone for every chapter; a vital and urgent contribution in an age when established principles of justice and the rule of law are under attack across the world. I read this book as a junior lawyer and thought to myself, at every page, this is the kind of prosecutor I want to be when I grow up’ – The Secret Barrister