Former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said Sunday it’s “terrible for the rule of law” when President Trump urges the Justice Department to investigate or not to investigate specific people.

"He’s crossed the line a number of times,” Bharara told ABC’s “This Week.”

“It is a terrible thing for a president in this country to tell his Justice Department who to investigate, who to prosecute and who to keep their hands off of," he said.

ADVERTISEMENT



Trump on Friday urged the Justice Department to investigate Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonWhat Senate Republicans have said about election-year Supreme Court vacancies Bipartisan praise pours in after Ginsburg's death Trump carries on with rally, unaware of Ginsburg's death MORE and her Democratic allies.

....People are angry. At some point the Justice Department, and the FBI, must do what is right and proper. The American public deserves it! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 3, 2017

He was responding to disclosures from former Democratic National Committee (DNC) interim chairwoman Donna Brazile about an agreement between Clinton’s presidential campaign, the DNC, and Clinton’s joint fundraising committee that said the campaign would “control the party’s finances, strategy, and all the money raised.”

The explosive revelations from Brazile renewed criticisms from supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders Bernie SandersKenosha will be a good bellwether in 2020 Biden's fiscal program: What is the likely market impact? McConnell accuses Democrats of sowing division by 'downplaying progress' on election security MORE (I-Vt.) and caused Sen. Elizabeth Warren Elizabeth WarrenBiden's fiscal program: What is the likely market impact? Warren, Schumer introduce plan for next president to cancel ,000 in student debt The Hill's 12:30 Report - Presented by Facebook - Don't expect a government check anytime soon MORE (D-Mass.) to say she thinks the Democratic presidential primary process was fixed in Clinton’s favor.

“Pocahontas just stated that the Democrats, lead by the legendary Crooked Hillary Clinton, rigged the Primaries! Lets go FBI & Justice Dept.,” Trump also wrote on Twitter last week, using a derogatory nickname he often employs to refer to Warren.

Bharara said in the Sunday interview that there is also evidence that Trump has urged law enforcement officials to “back off” other investigations.

“And we have evidence of that too, on the flip side of the coin,” Bharara continued.

“We have evidence that he told Jim Comey to back off on Mike Flynn and that he asked Jeff Sessions Jefferson (Jeff) Beauregard SessionsTrump's policies on refugees are as simple as ABCs Ocasio-Cortez, Velázquez call for convention to decide Puerto Rico status White House officials voted by show of hands on 2018 family separations: report MORE potentially to back off on Joe Arpaio, and both of those things I think are terrible for the rule of law in this country," he said.

Bharara was referring to former FBI Director James Comey, who testified that Trump asked him to “let go” of an investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

The other reference was to a report that said Trump inquired of Attorney General Jeff Sessions about closing a case against Joe Arpaio, the former sheriff of Maricopa County, Ariz. Trump went on to pardon Arpaio.