The president’s public bashing might factor into the obstruction of justice probe.
By Jen Kirbyjen.kirby@vox.com Feb 28, 2018, 9:33pm EST
Add another item to the list of things that special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating: President Donald Trump’s public humiliation of Attorney General Jeff Sessions in the summer of 2017.
The Washington Post’s Devlin Barrett, Josh Dawsey, and Rosalind S. Helderman report that Mueller is specifically interested in whether Trump’s apparent frustration with his “beleaguered A.G.” was part of a larger effort to force Sessions out, or get him to quit in order to install a friendlier attorney general in the Justice Department, one who didn’t have to recuse him or herself from the Russia probe.
Here’s how the Post sums it up:
In mid-July, Trump started escalating his public criticisms of Sessions, including angry tweets. Around that time, according to people familiar with internal White House discussions, the president discussed firing Sessions or forcing him out of the Justice Department. Those discussions are of particular interest to Mueller’s investigators, as they seek to determine the president’s intentions, according to a person familiar with the probe.
Trump’s fury at Sessions’s decision to recuse himself from what he calls the Russia “hoax” — which put Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in charge — is well-documented. “If he would have recused himself before the job, I would have said, ‘Thanks, Jeff, but I can’t, you know, I’m not going to take you.’ It’s extremely unfair, and that’s a mild word, to the president,” Trump told the New York Times in July.
Around that time, Trump began to relentlessly torment Jeff Sessions on Twitter, which Vox’s Andrew Prokop wrote “sure looks like President Donald Trump is waging a deliberate public campaign to push his own attorney general to resign.”
Donald J. Trump
?
@realDonaldTrump
So why aren't the Committees and investigators, and of course our beleaguered A.G., looking into Crooked Hillarys crimes & Russia relations?
7:49 AM - Jul 24, 2017
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69.7K people are talking about this
Donald J. Trump
?
@realDonaldTrump
Attorney General Jeff Sessions has taken a VERY weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes (where are E-mails & DNC server) & Intel leakers!
5:12 AM - Jul 25, 2017
69.2K
53.6K people are talking about this
The theory went that, with Sessions gone, Trump could install a friendly attorney general, one who didn’t have to recuse himself from a Russia investigation. That person would then become Mueller’s boss — and could stymie the special counsel’s work.
So Trump’s antipathy toward Sessions is nothing new, and the New York Times reported in January that Mueller was looking at Trump’s decision to dispatch White House counsel Don McGahn to try to prevent Sessions from recusing himself from the investigation. McGahn failed, but the incident fueled questions about whether the president tried to obstruct justice.
The Washington Post’s latest story builds on that, revealing that Mueller is looking at whether Trump’s ridicule of Jeff Sessions fits into a larger attempt to force out his attorney general. The the report also offered some details about how Trump makes fun of Jeff Sessions behind his back: He calls him Mr. Magoo, and has complained to “associates that he has hired the best lawyers for his entire life, but is stuck with Sessions, who is not defending him and is not sufficiently loyal.”
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