Citing Recusal, Trump Says He Wouldn’t Have Hired Sessions

The New York Times ^ | 19 Jul 17 | PETER BAKER, MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT and MAGGIE HABERMAN

[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.

[SkyPilot]

I was going to point this out because I haven't seen it brought up. He pretty much called Comey a blackmailing Mafia type thug .

Trump flat out said it during the interview.

Mr. Trump recalled that a little more than two weeks before his inauguration, Mr. Comey and other intelligence officials briefed him at Trump Tower on Russian meddling. Mr. Comey afterward pulled Mr. Trump aside and told him about a dossier that had been assembled by a former British spy filled with salacious allegations against the incoming president, including supposed sexual escapades in Moscow. The F.B.I. has not corroborated the most sensational assertions in the dossier. In the interview, Mr. Trump said he believed Mr. Comey told him about the dossier to implicitly make clear he had something to hold over the president. “In my opinion, he shared it so that I would think he had it out there,” Mr. Trump said. As leverage? “Yeah, I think so,’’ Mr. Trump said.

[JayGalt]

Wow, the return of the swamp and the loss of all our hopes.

[itsahoot]

If Sessions had any class he would offer up his resignation in short order

If he had any class he would call a press conference and announce his resignation.

No connection but McCain knows he is soon dead and refuses to resign so we can keep the Senate's ability to move forward on several issues, I doubt if he will.

[madison10]

I truly wish the President had not made that remark to the NYT. He did say that in an interview, right? They did not bug his bedroom or something? 😉 I feel bad for Jeff Sessions. Trump is lashing out 'cause his kid is in apparent trouble.

[ichabod1]

I sure wish he was still a senator.

[SkyPilot]

he did not have to recuse himself, there was no law or rule that required him to, anymore than the Lesbian wing of the Supreme Court recused them self on gay marriage.

Good point.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg will never recuse herself, even though she effectively campaigned against Trump as a sitting Supreme Court Justice.

Elena "Butch" Kagan helped write ObamaCare, and never recused herself from the case.

And on, and on, and on.

[gov_bean_ counter]

His kid is too smart by half and will end up making things worse for himself by testifying.

[palmer]

Like all of Trump's other appointees, Sessions is capable and professional. His primary focus needs to be raining the swamp in Justice and other branches where there is corruption. I think he will need to show some results there within a reasonable time period.

OTOH, people want to see Hillary doing a perp walk. But Hillary isn't in charge of the swamp, a prosecution in the court of public opinion will fail, and the deterrence factor will be minimal. To get Hillary he would have to roll her underlings who have been granted immunity. Despite much speculation her crime is basically extreme careless handling of classified and the actual leaks were mostly done by those underlings.

What I'd like to see most from Sessions is some reorganization of Justice, some downsizing and professionalizing.

[sheana]

Trump needed a pitbull at the AG position, instead he got a respectable, low-key gentleman, who wants to play fair and avoid any controversy. To deal with the democrats and the swamp Trump needed a pitbull.

This is the whole story. Sessions is a good man but he’s in the wrong position.

[Political Junkie Too]

Wasn't this the day that Trump was at Mar a Lago planning the travel ban? Sessions acted on his own after Trump announced his full confidence in Sessions. It was Sessions' recusal that undermined Trump's earlier statement of support.

-PJ

[palmer]

Sessions recused himself on all campaign issues, not just Russia. It was and is the only campaign issue that has come up, mainly because the press is too stupid and lazy to invent any others.

[madison10]

Agreed. Should have kept his mouth shut. Cannot believe junior consulted a lawyer first, but maybe he did.

[kabar]

Again, he comes across as naive.

Naive? Are you f'ing serious? Sessions has gone thru the political wars many times being the target of the Dems and at times, Reps. He has stood up against all of them, including McConnell and the Rep establishment in the Senate who screwed him on committee assignments.

Sessions was an Assistant US Attorney in the Office of the US Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama beginning in 1975. In 1981, President Reagan nominated him to be the US Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama. The Senate confirmed him and he held that position for 12 years until Bill Clinton's Attorney General, Janet Reno, asked for his resignation.

in 1986, Reagan nominated Sessions to be a judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama. Sessions's judicial nomination was recommended and actively backed by Republican Alabama Senator Jeremiah Denton. A substantial majority of the American Bar Association Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary, which rates nominees to the federal bench, rated Sessions "qualified", with a minority voting that Sessions was "not qualified". His nomination was opposed by the NAACP, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, and People for the American Way.

On June 5, 1986, the Committee voted 10–8 against recommending the nomination to the Senate floor, with Republican Senators Charles Mathias of Maryland and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania voting with the Democrats. It then split 9–9 on a vote to send Sessions's nomination to the Senate floor with no recommendation, this time with Specter in support. A majority was required for the nomination to proceed.[36] The pivotal votes against Sessions came from his home state's Democratic Senator Howell Heflin of Alabama. Although Heflin had previously backed Sessions, he began to oppose Sessions after hearing testimony, concluding that there were "reasonable doubts" over Sessions's ability to be "fair and impartial". The nomination was withdrawn on July 31, 1986.

Sessions became only the second nominee to the federal judiciary in 48 years whose nomination was killed by the Senate Judiciary Committee. He was quoted then as saying that the Senate on occasion had be insensitive to the rights and reputation of nominees. A law clerk from the U.S. District Court in Mobile who had worked with Sessions later acknowledged the confirmation controversy, but stated that he observed Sessions as "a lawyer of the highest ethical and intellectual standards".

Sessions was elected Attorney General of Alabama in November 1994, unseating incumbent Democrat Jimmy Evans with 57% of the vote. The harsh criticism he had received from Senator Edward Kennedy, who called him a "throw-back to a shameful era" and a "disgrace", was considered to have won him the support of Alabama conservatives.

[Alberta's Child]

In some ways Christie would be the perfect AG for this country.

He would never get confirmed once the recess appointment expired at the end of the Senate term in 2018, so he would only be there to serve a few key purposes:

1. Fire Mueller.

2. Get on TV every day and run his mouth defending the President.

3. Turn the U.S. Justice Department into a complete circus -- at least publicly.

He's probably the only person in public office today who might conceivably fire Mueller, get on CNN that day, and give the following response to the inevitable astonished question from Anderson Cooper about whether this was all just a conspiracy to shield President Trump from any legal repercussions of his alleged collusion with the Russians in the 2016 election:

"No, there's no conspiracy. I don't know who the f#%& this guy Mueller is, and why he's even employed by the Justice Department."

[SkyPilot]

Complaining about this now is the equivalent of an NFL head coach benching his starting quarterback in 2017 because he threw a terrible interception five years ago.

Oh come on.

It was Sessions own answers that gave an opening for even the hapless vote stealer, Al Franken, to torpedo Sessions.

And even then, Sessions didn't have to fold like a cheap tent and recuse himself.

He turned over his authority and power, and ceded his right to be Attorney General only weeks into the Trump Presidency.

Trump is fighting for his life, every single day.

Sessions is on the sidelines, talking about the D.A.R.E program.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions Wants to Revive D.A.R.E. Program

[itsahoot]

Is that Sessions' fault, or Trump's fault?

Depends on whether you believe the AG is independent. </s> He isn't.

I really don't know the answer but someone has to start. We have no clue who the real power brokers are but they surely aren't the people we elect.

I hoped this time we were finally going to see a big difference. Sigh.......

[headstamp 2]

The classic example of a Senator and not an Attorney General.

[SkyPilot]

Recess appointment? In this environment? What kind of lawyer would take that job?

Gee, you're right.

There isn't anyone in the entire country to who would take the job of Attorney General if President Trump offered it to them. So we must stay with Jeff Sessions, because no one else in the entire country would accept the job.

[kabar]

It was in an interview conducted by the NYT and we have the audio. IMO Sessions will resign tomorrow. He has too much self-respect and integrity to continue in office after that statement.

[Alberta's Child]

Then why didn't Donald Trump give this interview to the New York Times in February?

Like I said -- he comes across as a whining, sniveling baby on this particular point.