Thread: Sessions fires back at Trump's latest slam: DOJ won't be 'improperly influenced'

3 hours ago

Sessions fires back at Trump's latest slam: DOJ won't be 'improperly influenced' by politics

By Brooke Singman | Fox News


Trump calls Sessions 'scared stiff and missing in action'

"The Daily Briefing" host Dana Perino discusses the relationship between President Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired back Thursday at President Trump for saying he “never took control of the Justice Department,” putting out a sharp statement vowing the agency won’t be “improperly influenced” by politics.

Trump made the comments in a wide-ranging interview with “Fox & Friends.”

The president, on the heels of the first guilty verdict from a trial connected to Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe, continued to fume over Sessions' recusal from the Russia investigation.

"Jeff Sessions never took control of the Justice Department, and it's a sort of an incredible thing," Trump claimed.
But Sessions countered in a written statement:

“I took control of the Department of Justice the day I was sworn in, which is why we have had unprecedented success at effectuating the President’s agenda—one that protects the safety and security rights of the American people, reduces violent crime, enforces our immigration laws, promotes economic growth, and advances religious liberty.”

He went on to say, “While I am Attorney General, the actions of the Department of Justice will not be improperly influenced by political considerations.”

The president for months has railed against Sessions over his recusal, but the attorney general has hung on, occasionally pushing back publicly. The president discussed Sessions when asked in the Fox News interview if he would fire his AG and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein after the midterms. He didn’t rule it out, but said he wanted to stay “uninvolved.”

“As I’ve said, I wanted to stay uninvolved. But when everybody sees what’s going on in the Justice Department—I always put ‘justice’ now with quotes—it’s a very, very sad day. Jeff Sessions recused himself, which he shouldn’t have done. Or he should have told me,” Trump told “Fox & Friends’” Ainsley Earhardt. “Even my enemies say that Jeff Sessions should have told you that he was going to recuse himself and then you wouldn’t have put him in. He took the job and then he said I’m going to recuse myself. I said, ‘what kind of a man is this?’”

Trump also said that the “only reason” he appointed Sessions as attorney general was because he worked on his 2016 campaign.

“Because I felt loyalty, he was an original supporter. He was on the campaign. He knows there was no collusion,” Trump explained. “And what’s come out of Manafort? No collusion.

What’s come out of Michael Cohen? No collusion.”

Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort was convicted on eight financial crime counts earlier this week, arising out of the Mueller probe. His ex-attorney Cohen also struck a plea deal in a separate case.

Sessions recused himself in 2017, due to his involvement with the Trump campaign, per Justice Department regulations.

Rosenstein, his deputy, was then named to oversee the investigation. He appointed Mueller as special counsel.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018...-politics.html

He went on to say, “While I am Attorney General, the actions of the Department of Justice will not be improperly influenced by political considerations.”

Jeff Sessions, unlike Obama's Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch is an honorable man. I'm almost positive Trump is getting a lot of talking points against Session from watching the likes of Hannity and Pirro (and their guests) on the Fox News channel. Trump needs to quit dedicating so much of his time to concerning himself with the Russian collusion probe and worry more about fixing the problems we're facing on immigration and border security among other things.

Turn off late night Fox News, Trump, and use that time to concentrate more on your campaign promises!