On the twitters, New York Times reporter Charlie Savage offered a curiously twisted version of his own story.

BREAKING: Trump demands resignation all 46 Obama holdover US attorneys, including Bharara of SDNY who was to stay on https://t.co/XwIHq9BaZ2

— Charlie Savage (@charlie_savage) March 10, 2017

As reported, Acting Attorney General either “asked” or “instructed” the 46 remaining Obama administration United States Attorneys to tender their resignations.

But on Friday, Mr. Bharara was among federal prosecutors who received a call from Dana Boente, the acting deputy attorney general, instructing him to resign, according to a person familiar with the matter. As of Friday evening, though some of the prosecutors had publicly announced their resignations, Mr. Bharara had not. A spokesman for Mr. Bharara declined to comment.

See that in there, “According to a person familiar with the matter”? Just saying. But this was confirmed in an email from DoJ spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores:

“As was the case in prior transitions, many of the United States Attorneys nominated by the previous administration already have left the Department of Justice,” she said in the email. “The Attorney General has now asked the remaining 46 presidentially appointed U.S. Attorneys to tender their resignations in order to ensure a uniform transition.”

And indeed, the changing of the guard of United States Attorneys isn’t a Trump thing, even though most people never concerned themselves with such matters and so, when promoted as “breaking” on the twitters to a resistance hungry for any shred of red meat tofu available to confirm that Trump is literally Hitler, it comes off as an outrage.

What is, however, unusual is that Preet Bharara, who worked under Schumer before being appointed as United States Attorney by President Obama, was purportedly told he would be kept on, and that most administrations line up their own ducks before knocking down the prior administration’s.

And the Daily Beast breathlessly backs the newest hero of the resistance.

Bharara—whose office is in the end stages of an investigation of New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, about to begin the trials of two close allies of Governor Andrew Cuomo, and also appears to be investigating how Fox News structured settlements of sexual harassment and other claims brought by its employees—met with Donald Trump shortly after the election and was told that he would stay. Just this week, Attorney General Jeff Sessions assured him in a phone conversation that he’d remain atop the Southern District, according to the federal law enforcement official.

Since receiving the letter demanding his resignation Friday afternoon, Bharara has yet to speak to the press or to his full office. Friday evening, the law enforcement official said, Bharara told his section chiefs that he’d yet to submit the requested letter and may instead challenge Sessions to fire him.

See that in there, “according to the federal law enforcement official”? It’s rather remarkable that Preet is being remade as a progressive icon, despite his national origin, skin color, former service to Chuck Schumer and failure to tap out his resignation letter immediately upon being asked. Imagine, it’s friggin’ Saturday and Friday’s request remains unfulfilled. Such a rebel!

This was the same Preet who was, ahem, kinda harsh as prosecutor despite the superficial reasons to think otherwise today. After all, the enemy of your enemy is your friend, even if Radley Balko hasn’t quite forgotten all the bad things Preet did when he had his hand on the really big SDNY hammer.

Preet Bharara assaulted press freedom and free speech, waged dumb moral crusades, prosecuted people to make examples of them. Good riddance.

— Radley Balko (@radleybalko) March 11, 2017

But the Daily Beast isn’t done using Preet’s overnight bravery in the face of the dreaded Trump purge.

“While it’s true that presidents from both parties made their own choices for U.S. Attorney positions across the country, they have always done so in an orderly fashion that doesn’t put ongoing investigations at risk.”

Don’t get your hopes up just yet. it’s not as if AUSAs will be mindlessly bumping into courtroom walls. In the absence of an appointed US Attorney, the first assistant United States will act in his place. There are still chiefs, deputies, line assistants, all of whom will come to work Monday morning and carry on.

Moreover, it remains unclear whether this is a purge at all. Resignations tendered may be accepted, held or rejected. Maybe the current US Attorneys will remain in place until the new administration has replacements lined up. Maybe Preet will stay on regardless. Maybe not. Maybe this is yet another example of institutional incompetence by the not-ready-for-prime-time administration, which shot its wad by asking for resignations when it should have waited until it had people lined up to take over.

“Everything these people do is a Saturday night massacre. Remember the ambassadors?” the law enforcement source said, referring to Trump’s early January decision as president-elect to boot all politically appointed diplomats from their posts by Inauguration Day, even before most of their replacements were lined up.

“It’s such a lack of basic fucking decency and civility. They don’t see anyone as human beings; it’s horrifying.”

Horrifying? Not a word typically used by unnamed law enforcement officials, though the expressed concern for  “basic fucking decency and civility” would be a nice change of pace, provided it applied to the rest of us and not just heroes like Preet.