What’s next for Preet Bharara and his cases?

ALBANY - When U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara made his first trip to Albany in February 2016, he joked about his future.

As a Bruce Springsteen superfan and with the rocker in Albany that night, Bharara said at a talk, "So, let me put it this way: Given Bruce Springsteen is in town, I was not born to run."

That joke is now carrying more weight.

Bharara's firing Saturday as the federal prosecutor for the Southern District of New York has renewed speculation about his political future after a seven-year tenure highlighted by corruption busting in state government.

He refused the request Friday from the Department of Justice to resign along with 45 other U.S. attorneys who were holdovers from the Obama administration.

Instead, Bharara forced the Trump administration to fire him -- after he said in November that Trump asked him to stay on and he agreed to do so.

"He’s going out with his head held high. In New York, anyway, he defied the president and he got fired," said Doug Muzzio, a political science professor from Baruch College in Manhattan.

"His stock is as high as it ever going to be."

►Bharara says Trump fired him after refusing to resign

►Bharara agrees to stay as U.S. attorney

►Preet Bharara: The man behind NY corruption busting

On Monday, White House spokesman Sean Spicer contended what Trump and Bharara discussed in November is meaningless now, saying he wasn't privy to their conversation.

"I don’t think it really matters at the end of the day," Spicer said at his daily press briefing.

"The attorney general followed the practice that existed for the last several administrations, and asked every (U.S. attorney) from the last administration to submit their resignation."

Next steps

As one of the most powerful federal prosecutors in the nation, Bharara would regularly reject talk of a running for office, such as for governor against Gov. Andrew Cuomo or New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.

To serve in Albany, he told ABC's "This Week" in June: "That’s really doubtful. I’m not sure I could get out of there alive."

But he will undoubtedly face recruitment from some New York Democrats, who would see him as a counter to the scandal-scarred culture that has pervaded the state Capitol.

“Run, Preet, Run," New York City Public Advocate Tish James wrote on Twitter just moments after Bharara said on Twitter he was fired.

Bharara, who lives in Westchester County, racked up a series of high-profile convictions, including the two legislative leaders, Dean Skelos and Sheldon Silver; the Senate deputy leader Thomas Libous of Binghamton; and Hudson Valley senators Vincent Leibell and and Nick Spano.

Overall, he convicted nearly 30 politicians in New York.

Other cases will go on without him.

Trials are set later this year involving a former top aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the former head of the SUNY Polytechnic Institute for alleged bid rigging and kickbacks; investigations are ongoing into Mayor Bill de Blasio; and both Skelos and Silver are appealing their convictions.

Bharara intimated in a statement Saturday that the cases will not be derailed.

He named his successor, deputy Joon H. Kim, who will be in place until Republicans choose the permanent head of the district -- which stretches from Manhattan through the Hudson Valley into Dutchess County.

"I want to thank the amazing people of the Southern District of New York, the greatest public servants in the world, for everything they do each day in pursuit of justice," Bharara said.

On Monday, he left his office for the last time to a cheering crowd in the street. The moment was carried live in NY1 and CNBC.

"I love New York, and this is the best prosecutor's office you've ever seen" was his only comment to the cameras.

Albany corruption

Whether Bharara even wants to pursue a career in politics is uncertain, despite the flair with which he would announce major corruption cases.

In a 2015 profile of Bharara by the USA Today Network's Albany Bureau, his friends questioned whether he wouldn't just someday go into the private sector and cash in on his experience. Bharara has a wife and three children.

“One of the things people keep asking is how long can he afford to do this, and the answer is how long can his family afford for him to do this?” Viet Dinh, a close friend and prominent Washington, D.C., lawyer, said at the time.

Still, he could have walked away when Trump was elected, but he decided to stay -- a sign of his commitment to the job, supporters said.

"He has taken on seemingly impenetrable political corruption in pursuit of justice for New Yorkers, who deserve his continued leadership," said Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause/NY.

Bharara also has a political background: He is Sen. Charles Schumer's former chief counsel.

Bharara also likes to stoke speculation. He started a personal Twitter account earlier this month and then wrote in a tweet Sunday: "By the way, now I know what the Moreland Commission must have felt like."

The tweet was multi-barbed: Bharara investigated alleged interference by Cuomo's office into a corruption-fighting panel the governor created in 2013 and disband a year later.

Bharara ultimately absolved Cuomo of any criminal wrongdoing, saying in January 2016: "There is insufficient evidence to prove a federal crime.”

Speaking out

Bharara, 48, has not been shy about criticizing the state Capitol and its leadership, and his office's focus on the malfeasance there was unprecedented in recent times.

After the arrests and convictions of Silver and Skelos, Bharara blasted what he called a "cauldron of corruption" in Albany.

"When you have these kind of examples and misconduct over time, I think it undermines our faith in our own system in a democracy," Bharara said a day after Silver's arrest in January 2015.

Those comments and others after Silver's arrest was criticized by the judge in the case, who said Bharara strayed "close to the edge of the rules governing his own conduct."

If Bharara choose to run for office in the near future, it would be a quick turnaround against entrenched leaders: de Blasio is seeking a second term in November, and Cuomo says he plans to run for a third term in 2018.

Cuomo's popularity hit a two-year high last month, and he had $22 million in his campaign coffers in January.

As for Bharara, 67 percent of voters last June either didn't know about him or had an opinion, a Siena College poll found.

De Blasio has declined comment about Bharara. When asked about Bharara on a conference call Monday with reporters to discuss a looming snow storm, Cuomo would not comment. His aide, Melissa DeRosa, said the governor was only taking on-topic questions about the storm.

Overall, Bharara's record has faced questions about how aggressive he pursued Wall Street corruption after the financial meltdown soon after he took office in 2009.

Harry Wilson, a Republican candidate for state comptroller in 2010, cast doubt on whether Bharara would be able to effectively make the switch from prosecutor to politician.

Wilson, who is considering a run for governor next year, noted only Rudy Giuliani and Thomas Dewey -- who both held the same U.S. attorney job -- were able to become successful administrators.

"Prosecutors historically have made terrible executives," Wilson said on WDGJ-AM in Albany.