Sessions denies collusion as Trump eyes Mueller

Attorney General Jeff Sessions
this week heatedly denied having
colluded with Russia’s attempt to
influence the 2016 presidential campaign,
amid reports that President
Donald Trump had to be talked out
of firing the special counsel now
investigating the Russia scandal. In
testimony before the Senate Intelligence
Committee, Sessions said the
insinuation that his meetings with
the Russian ambassador during
the campaign meant that he was
cooperating with Moscow was an
“appalling and detestable lie.” The
former Alabama senator defended
writing a memo justifying Trump’s
firing of Comey, saying his recusal from campaign-related investigations
“cannot interfere with my ability to oversee the Department
of Justice, including the FBI.” Sessions recused himself from
overseeing the Russia investigation in March after admitting to two
previously undisclosed meetings with Russian ambassador to the
U.S. Sergey Kislyak; Sessions testified this week he had no memory
of a reported third meeting with the ambassador. To the frustration
of Democratic senators, Sessions repeatedly insisted it was “inappropriate”
to discuss his private conversations with the president
about why Comey was fired or any other matter.

Comey last week provided the Senate Intelligence Committee with
detailed accounts of his interactions with Trump and his team. (See
Controversy.) Comey said he took detailed notes on the encounters
because he was concerned the president “might lie” about
them later, and admitted leaking these memos after he was fired in
order to force the Justice Department to appoint a special counsel.
Trump said Comey’s testimony was full of “false statements and
lies,” but said it also gave him “total and complete vindication.”
Christopher Ruddy, a longtime friend of the president’s, revealed
this week that Trump was considering firing Robert Mueller, the
special counsel who’s taken over the
Russia investigation. Trump’s aides have
talked him out of that extreme step for
now, The New York Times reported.
But White House sources told the Times
that Trump might change his mind.

Sessions’ testimony was a mess of obfuscation
and contradiction, said The New
York Times. The attorney general insisted
he couldn’t discuss his conversations
with the president because of some longstanding
Justice Department policy—yet
“couldn’t confirm that it existed in writing
or that, if it did, he had actually read
it.” He claimed his recommendation to
fire Comey was based on the former director’s
handling of the Clinton investigation,
even though he “originally praised”
Comey for announcing new emails had
been found 11 days before the election.

Anytime he was asked a difficult
question, Sessions refused to answer
or said he didn’t recall.
“There are legitimate concerns
about Mueller,” said the New York
Post. Three of the Justice Department
investigators he has hired
have given political donations to
Democrats, and Mueller is known
to be “good friends” with Comey.
But for Trump to fire Mueller
would be a monumental mistake.
He’d have to order Mueller’s supervisor,
Deputy Attorney General
Rod Rosenstein, to do the actual
firing, and Rosenstein would likely
refuse and resign—prompting a
repeat of Watergate’s Saturday Night Massacre. More importantly,
firing Mueller would strongly suggest that Trump has something to
hide. “Don’t do it, Mr. President.”

If Sessions’ testimony revealed anything, said Philip Bump in The
Washington Post, it’s that Trump is “genuinely uninterested” in
finding out how much Russia interfered in our election. Sessions
admitted he could not remember a single occasion on which the
president expressed concern or curiosity about the issue. Trump
clearly sees the investigation as a “hassle, not an important step
toward assuring the sanctity of American elections.”
Sessions doesn’t deserve this “public thrashing,” said Gregg Jarrett
in FoxNews.com. The “canard” that he misled senators at his
confirmation hearing about his meetings with Kislyak was always
based on a simple misunderstanding. Sessions has explained that he
met with Kislyak as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee,
not as a member of Trump’s campaign team; that’s why
he didn’t report it. Maybe so, said Michael Goodwin in the New
York Post, but the president made a mistake in hiring Sessions.
As a member of the campaign team, the attorney general “knew
almost from day one that he would
have to recuse himself” from the Russia
investigation. That ultimately led to
the appointment of Mueller as a special
counsel, leaving Trump’s fate in the
hands of “an unrestrained, independent
investigation.”
If you think Trump won’t fire Mueller,
think again, said Jonathan Chait
in NYMag.com. As Comey’s dismissal
made clear, the president has “no
intrinsic respect for political norms,”
and he finds it intolerable to be under
investigation. More importantly, he has
found that Republicans and his water
carriers on Fox News will support him
no matter what he does. The president
is a “creature of impulses,” and at
some point he’ll find it impossible to
“repress his instinct” to rid himself of
the irritating Mueller.

Mueller is hiring some of the country’s “best
legal minds” for his investigative team, indicating
“the seriousness of the Russia probe,” said
FoxNews.com. This week, he hired Justice
Department Deputy Solicitor General Michael
Dreeben, a widely respected prosecutor who has
argued more than 100 cases before the U.S. Supreme
Court. Mueller also reportedly has hired
Andrew Weissmann, head of the fraud section
in the DOJ Criminal Division. Weissmann led the
Enron Task Force from 2002 to 2005, overseeing
the investigations and prosecutions of dozens
of individuals, including Kenneth Lay. Other
members of the team include prosecutors with
experience in corporate fraud, Watergate, and the
Mafia. Mueller’s hirings have alarmed Trump’sallies, including former House Speaker Newt
Gingrich. “They’re setting up to go after Trump,”
Gingrich said.