Posted on 07/19/2017 6:14:34 PM PDT by SkyPilot
President Trump said on Wednesday that he never would have appointed Attorney General Jeff Sessions had he known Mr. Sessions would recuse himself from overseeing the Russia investigation that has dogged his presidency, calling the decision “very unfair to the president.”
In a remarkable public break with one of his earliest political supporters, Mr. Trump complained that Mr. Sessions’s decision ultimately led to the appointment of a special counsel that should not have happened. “Sessions should have never recused himself, and if he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me before he took the job and I would have picked somebody else,” Mr. Trump said.
In a wide-ranging interview with The New York Times, the president also accused James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director he fired in May, of trying to leverage a dossier of compromising material to keep his job. Mr. Trump criticized both the acting F.B.I. director who has been filling in since Mr. Comey’s dismissal and the deputy attorney general who recommended it. And he took on Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel now leading the investigation into Russian meddling in last year’s election.
Mr. Trump said Mr. Mueller was running an office rife with conflicts of interest and warned investigators against delving into matters too far afield from Russia. Mr. Trump never said he would order the Justice Department to fire Mr. Mueller, nor would he outline circumstances under which he might do so. But he left open the possibility as he expressed deep grievance over an investigation that has taken a political toll in the six months since he took office.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
OK. That is your belief. On the evidence we have now no one can be sure. I think he’s trolling them or displacing their attention. Looking forward to finding out.
My conclusion and hope.....Trump is not stupid, if he wasn’t playing his enemies here and meant those words on Sessions he is stupid. So I think Trump is giving Sessions cover who is going after Clinton, Obama and other Washington swamp critters big time. Trump is an end goal guy....all about the win. Sessions would get more done without state critters interference by being very secretive about his investigations on some very powerful people with lots of operatives still in govt. This has too be what is happening.
Remember what Trump is up against and what they would do if they knew he was working to put them in orange jumpsuits.
President Trump is “gaming” the professional politicians in DC...
Sitting back to watch the fun as it all slowly develops....
On the other hand, this quote from I have on my profile page is also inescapably true.
“In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousand fold in the future. When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers, we are not simply protecting their trivial old age, we are thereby ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations.”
Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956
And I, and countless others, will feel a lot of anger and extreme dissatisfaction if no "big names" are called out for their hosts of crimes. if big names are too big to be called to justice, that means our Republic is really down the drain. Economy, illegals, moslem influence in gov, political correctness in military, government corruption and much more are of course absolutely vital.
But without the foundation of Blind Justice, the rule of Law and not rule of Man - the crumbling will continue. Good economy is not enough. Justice must be served or there is no bright future; it means wrongdoers know that "If I get big enough I can do whatever the hell I want and no one will ever go after me." And the little guys still get will get prosecuted like the guy that took a couple of photos of a submarine he shouldn't have. What was his crime compared to Cankles?
If Big Names get to go scott free, if government officials if they are big and important and famous and connected enough, can commit treason, use fake names, very likely order hits on enemies, and all the rest - because it's too difficult or time consuming or uses too many resources or there are still too many corrupt sonsabitches in government to bring them to justice - then we are finished as a Republic. In a practical way I can see your point, but the wounds our citizens have endured because of the lack of justice for extremely serious felonies committed by those in government positions - is going to fester and cause rot. This will not go away. Too many people are bitter, angry, hurt, and cynical to just put all the wrongdoing aside and go on with life. The trickle down effect of injustice will and does taint all levels, all over the country.
The bigger the name, the tighter your case must be.
I do not disagree at all. With some of the big names, the crimes are so egregious and numerous, I don’t see how a tight case could not be made, given enough resources.
Wray voted out of committee today, on his way to senate floor.
Hee hee!!!!!! And I assume McCabe will be out the door shortly after Wray is affirmed, I hope.
I understand your loyalty to him and friendship. I admire it. In the end, we are all on the same team.
I would like to see Sessions fire the assistant attorney general, the special prosecutor, & then resign himself.
Here are what some of the enemies of Jeff Sessions are saying (go to the articles for the specific accomplishments):
Jeff Sessions has done more damage in his first 100 days than his boss
US attorney general Jeff Sessions may not be part of the biggest investigation in the Department of Justice, but as he reaches 100 days in office, there’s little doubt that he’s had an important impact on the American criminal-justice system—potentially for years to come.
Despite the political turmoil of the Trump administration, Sessions has moved to reverse a tide of progressive reform and to fulfill his boss’s law-and-order agenda, a collection of concepts loosely articulated during the 2016 presidential campaign. Sessions’ biggest actions, from undermining federal oversight of police departments to cracking down on undocumented immigrants, have worried a wide array of lawmakers, law-enforcement leaders, advocates and scientists.
“Of all the cabinet members, maybe even the president, he has to this point had the most significant impact as to policy changes,” said Jesselyn McCurdy, the deputy director at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Washington Legislative Office told Quartz.
Unlike his boss, Sessions is delivering on what he has promised—sometimes on causes he has championed for decades.
“There’s been a great bipartisan movement by organizations on the ground and members of Congress to reform the federal criminal-justice system, based on successes that have happened in the states, but the leader of opposition to that reform was Jeff Sessions, as a senator from Alabama,” McCurdy said. “These are all things that [Sessions], as a criminal justice reform opponent, had on his radar already.
McCurdy said Sessions was “definitely” living up to the ACLU’s concerns, and in some areas, fulfilling the worst-case scenarios.
Jeff Sessions ushers in 'Trump era' at the Justice Department
In just over two months, Sessions has proved to be a central figure in effectuating Trump's vision for America in tangible ways on immigration, crime, police reform and civil rights.
And while the White House searches for new messaging to frame what Trump has accomplished in the first 100 days in office, Sessions has single-handedly managed to make several significant domestic policy changes -- from pressing pause on implementing police reforms to withdrawing Obama-era protections for transgender students in public schools.
His radical transformation of the Justice Department's role is no accident.
Many of the changes Sessions has made thus far track a familiar principle of federalism: the notion that the federal government's powers are limited and it can't coerce states into action. In other words, the federal government should get out of the states' way.
Sessions' critics worry that he is well on his way to undoing many of the major progressive achievements of his predecessors, often by withdrawing from court cases or previous directives that fail to align with his views. Yet Trump supporters cheered Sessions on during the presidential campaign when he said, "the American people are not happy with their government."
Now that Sessions is the nation's top law enforcement officer, his defenders and critics universally agree: he's been busy fulfilling the President's campaign promises and he's just getting started.
Great article, fills in the blanks.
Could care less what he’s registered as. At his confirmation hearing he was introduced by democrats who all gave him glowing remarks. Comey it’s said is also a “registered’ republican.
You said you thought Wray was a Democrat. Why even post such a comment, when in less than a minute you can find out otherwise?
Sessions does not have the toughness nor the vision to do this job. His betrayal of Trump...when he had to know they’d do ANYTHING to reverse the will of the voters ...takes the cake. How convenient Sessions’ stand-in appoints Mueller who is now looking into Trump’s business dealings. The coup de gras is intended...and if they don’t find it they’ll make it up. Was Sessions a dupe or something worse? I choose dupe.
I am frightened and ANGRY!
In my opinion, Sessions is fine and will execute the plan fine... I think Trump was just candidly conveying his opinion that Sessions did not need to recuse himself on Russia, should not have recused himself on Russia, and should never recuse himself in any other areas without first consulting with Trump...
I hope this is true, as it is an important matter. Do you have a link for this?
I should like a definitive explanation as well.
He is not an enemy, but he is now in this for himself; his reputation; his legacy. The President does not want him. It is now all about Jeff. He cannot and will not drain the swamp. You know this.
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