Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

NY Attorney General Eric Schneiderman Targets Trump With Bulldog Hire

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman stepped up his battle with the Trump Administration by hiring a top corruption prosecutor who used to work under former Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The Journal reports that Howard Master will work on issues connected to the White House, and take on high-profile cases of public corruption. He successfully prosecuted New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver for fraud, extortion and money laundering. He has also taken on mail-order drug companies for fraud.

President Donald Trump fired Bharara in early March in a group dismissal of 46 U.S. attorneys. Bharara was said to be investigating Fox News and Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price at the time of his firing. Bharara had served for eight years and was known as an equal-opportunity crusader against corruption.

Schneiderman has a history of antagonizing Donald Trump. In 2013 the attorney general sued Trump and his for-profit Trump University for fraud. The case was settled shortly after the 2016 U.S. elections, with Trump agreeing to pay $25 million to students who claimed he misled them about teaching them his business strategies.

Since the election, Schneiderman has also challenged Trump’s executive orders on immigration and criticized the White House for rolling back protections for transgender students. The Journal reports the attorney general is also exploring possible suits against Trump for emoluments, or illegal accepting of payments from foreign governments.

Contact Daniella Cheslow at [email protected].

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.