Indian-American and former United States federal prosecutor Preet Bharara said he had yet to receive a reason for his dismissal almost a month after President Donald Trump’s administration fired him. Bharara said Trump’s U-turn on his position within the administration was a “direct example of uncertain helter-skelter incompetence’, The New York Times reported.

Bharara said criticised the Trump administration for its personnel decisions and executive actions, that was in people’s minds when this out-of-the-blue call for everyone’s resignation letter came.” Bharara is a scholar at the New York University at present. He said that while he did not “begrudge the decision”, he wanted to clear the record that his dismissal was a deliberate one, PTI reported.

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“A lot of the system is rigged, and a lot of your fellow Americans have been forgotten and have been left behind,” Bharara said during a public speech on Thursday. “Those are not alternative facts and that is not fake news, but I would respectfully submit: You don’t drain a swamp with a slogan.”

Bharara’s inclusion in the list of 44 other federal prosecutors who were told to put in their papers came as a surprise, after Donald Trump, as president-elect, asked him to stay on in November. Bharara said Trump telephoned him three times, and expressed fears that his calls may have violated the Justice Department’s rules about communicating with the White House

Known as the Sheriff of Wall Street, Bharara had prosecuted over 100 finance executives. He was in news when he had prosecuted Rajat Gupta, the former head of McKinsey in connection with a stock market scam, and then went after Devyani Khobragade.

It is customary, but not mandatory, for the 93 attorneys to leave their positions once a new president assumes office in the US. However, the Obama administration had allowed appointees of his predecessor George W Bush to serve until their replacements had been nominated and confirmed. The only two prosecutors who have been asked to continue are Dana Boente and Rod Rosenstein. The latter was, in fact, appointed by Bush.