Excerpt of Open Letter published by Jeff Sessions during his 2020 Senate run:
"As the world knows, the President disagreed with me on recusal, but I did what the law required me to do. I was a central figure in the campaign and was also a subject of and witness in the investigation and could obviously not legally be involved in investigating myself. If I had ignored and broken the law, the Democrats would have used that to severely damage the President.
Some have asked, why take the job as Attorney General if I knew I would have to recuse myself from the investigation? I knew no such thing. I wasn’t informed of Comey’s secret investigation until after I became Attorney General, and the investigation wasn’t publicly confirmed by the FBI until weeks after my recusal.”
I have been thinking about this lately. Note that the FBI didn't confirm the investigation into Sessions until weeks later.
The FBI stood by while Trump and the public raged at Sessions for his recusal. The way it was done, the public believed they knew Session's reason for recusal and didn't realize Comey had escalated the accusation against him to a secret, active investigation only after he accepted the appointement.
It's possible that the FBI was waiting for Sessions to defend himself from the left, the right, and the President by saying he was under investigation.
I wonder if there are terms under which Sessions was not allowed to tell the public that kind of detail about the secret investigation targeting him.
But making telling the public he was under investigation, even though the charges were baseless, would have given the Swamp ammunition to claim Trump's DOJ was compromised and was a national security threat; that Trump already had weaponized the DOJ; that the investigation itself supported the validity of the Russia hoax and Trump was a traitor.
With the MSM spining Comey's fake/secret investigation into ammunition, the swamp could declare a Constitutional crisis (UN! UN! HALP! SAVE US!). At the very least, they could launch their planned riots.
If this was their strategy, Sessions didn't fold, so the FBI released that information weeks later. I haven't researched that FBI "release"; wonder if it was Maggie Haberman? :/
Note that Mueller et. al. kept trying to get the unredacted version of his SC report to the public, but Barr would not allow it. I wonder if the redactions included damming smears against Sessions, Trump and or Trump's children (Similar to the FBI forcing Flynn to agree not to say in court that the FBI threatened to prosecute Flynn's son.)
The false accusations in the SC's report could have been used to pull down both Trump, his children and his adminstration's DOJ.
If Sessions ran for office so he would have a public platform from which to explain himself, my first impression was that it failed. I feel like I am one of 5 people who found his open letter on his Alabama state candidate website, and 2 of us read it. The MSM seemed to keep that public statement from the public.
Jeff Sessions entire open letter to the public while running for 2020 senator
But then again, I DID read it. Probably more than 5 of us read it. For Sessions to officially join Trump's administration in some capacity, he would need far more exposure of the way he was treated by the FBI before the public would accept him.
I read Session’s letter. Alabama citizens had a choice to make and they made it. Nuff said.
Plus from Sessions' letter ---> "I was a central figure in the campaign and was also a subject of and witness in the investigation"
I too think that Sessions ran for his seat for two of the reasons you laid out.
“1) the long shot possibility that MAGA’s would elect him to replace a weaker, lesser candidate in the Senate and/or 2) the platform from which to tell the public why he recused regardless of whether or not he won the election.”
I think also that Sessions genuinely thought his leading Republican opponent would not support Trump as much as he would and he also thought he could positively influence his fellow Republican senators to support the MAGA agenda and to see that the DS is only going to stab them in the back in the end.
By running, Sessions put Trump in a bind. I think the Trump team was afraid that Alabamans would not forgive Sessions and not come out to vote for his and a Republican pick up of the Senate seat would not occur and that the Demonrats would kick up their fraud operation in order to prevent Sessions from getting in.
Also, given Trump’s public spats with Sessions, Trump would lose credibility if he supported him. It was far easier to support a candidate he had not really ever had any interactions with.
Thanks for your insight/analysis re Magoo (ever since Trump called him that, my friends and I use that term affectionately). I think the whole riff between them was theatre and Magoo will be back in some prominent role soon.
THanks for your reasoned thoughts. IMHO the tiff between Sessions and Pres Trump was entirely false and Trump knew exactly why Sessions had to recuse.
It’s just very hard, I believe, for most of Trump’s base to believe Trump faked his rage with Sessions, who too angelically and quickly cooperated with a fake investigation against him, which was utterly groundless from its conception.
The ineptitude of Sessions to call out the AG & Obama/FBI perpetrators was an impossible pill for Trump to swallow and prolonged the crippled transition of the POTUS.
Trump gets even, and in typical fashion he closed the door on Sessions like Michael closed it on Kay when she came to see the kids, in The Godfather.
In Trump’s head, you fight if you’re the last man standing, you fall fighting, or else you take yourself out, and become dead to him.
There is no future for Sessions near Trump. It takes courage to believe there is, and I love lj’s courage to defend Sessions. You are a true friend to an otherwise very kind and good man in so many other ways.
😘