Obstruction Inquiry Shows Trumps Struggle to Keep Grip on Russia Investigation

[Drum]

Source: New York Times

WASHINGTON — President Trump gave firm instructions in March to the White House’s top lawyer: stop the attorney general, Jeff Sessions, from recusing himself in the Justice Department’s investigation into whether Mr. Trump’s associates had helped a Russian campaign to disrupt the 2016 election.

Public pressure was building for Mr. Sessions, who had been a senior member of the Trump campaign, to step aside. But the White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, carried out the president’s orders and lobbied Mr. Sessions to remain in charge of the inquiry, according to two people with knowledge of the episode.

Mr. McGahn was unsuccessful, and the president erupted in anger in front of numerous White House officials, saying he needed his attorney general to protect him. Mr. Trump said he had expected his top law enforcement official to safeguard him the way he believed Robert F. Kennedy, as attorney general, had done for his brother John F. Kennedy and Eric H. Holder Jr. had for Barack Obama.

Mr. Trump then asked, “Where’s my Roy Cohn?” He was referring to his former personal lawyer and fixer, who had been Senator Joseph R. McCarthy’s top aide during the investigations into communist activity in the 1950s and died in 1986.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/04/us/politics/trump-sessions-russia-mcgahn.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fpolitics&action=click&contentCollection=politics&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0

[Kingofalldems]

1. Lock him up.

[delisen]

2. Trump doesn't sound too demented here-just scheming.

[Skraxx]

3. The Big Mystery To Me Is WHY Sessions DID decide to Recluse?

How did that happen? It may be the one thing that we can definitively point to that saves the Republic in the end. Sessions miraculously recused. WHAT made that happen? HOW did that happen? That's the million dollar question for me.

[Justice]

5. Perhaps he knew only way to stay out of prison

[fountainofyouth]

6. In the Times article

It says he consulted career officials at DOJ for advice, who recommended he recuse.

[Skraxx]

8. "Consulted"

Heh. I get the feeling he may not have had a choice. And thank goodness for that.

[Wellstone ruled]

12. Al Franken caught him in a lie.

Sessions knew he was had and Mr. Franken had the keys to his Demise.

[thbobby]

4. trump was and is desperate

Just flailing for a way to hide collusion and money laundering.

[Ccarmona]

7. What About the Independence of the Justice Dept?

DT thinks he was Coronated King on 1/20/2017.

[Miigwech]

9. Is trump gonna start wondering around in a bathrobe

like the ''Chin" Gigante ......... no dementia, no medical excuse. Just lock him up!

[highplainsdem]

10. Benjamin Wittes gave this story one of his "Boom!!" tweets:

Link to tweet

Boom!!
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/04/us/politics/trump-sessions-russia-mcgahn.html …

[.99center]

11. Whoa!

"The New York Times has also learned that four days before Mr. Comey was fired, one of Mr. Sessions’s aides asked a congressional staff member whether he had damaging information about Mr. Comey, part of an apparent effort to undermine the F.B.I. director. It was not clear whether Mr. Mueller’s investigators knew about this incident."

[mobeau69]

13. KaBoom!

Obstruction as clear as a hair on your face!

[Massacure]

14. I found the last three paragraphs of the article interesting

Once again, Mr. Trump erupted at Mr. Sessions upon hearing the news. In an Oval Office meeting, the president said the attorney general had been disloyal for recusing himself from the Russia investigation, and he told Mr. Sessions to resign.


Mr. Sessions sent his resignation letter to the president the following day. But Mr. Trump rejected it, sending it back with a handwritten note at the top.

“Not accepted,” the note said.

For as much as Trump distrusts Sessions, I'm surprised that he did not accept that resignation.

[zentrum]

15. In other words, where's my

……Robert Duvall?

[Scurrilous]

16. Boink.

[mcar]

17. Seems like obstruction to me