Again attacking Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Donald Trump says the US justice system should not interfere with his political fortunes and those of the Republican Party.
Trump’s Monday intervention was triggered by the recent indictments of the first two Congressmen to support his 2016 Presidential campaign. Chris Collins of New York has been indicted on multiple charges of wire fraud and insider trading. Duncan Hunter of California was charged by a Federal grand jury last month on 60 counts, including the use of more than $250,000 in campaign funds to pay for personal expenses.
Two long running, Obama era, investigations of two very popular Republican Congressmen were brought to a well publicized charge, just ahead of the Mid-Terms, by the Jeff Sessions Justice Department. Two easy wins now in doubt because there is not enough time. Good job Jeff……
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 3, 2018
At one level, the tweets were the continuation of a long-running campaign of insults and humiliation of Sessions. The Attorney General has angered Trump by recusing himself from the Trump-Russia investigation, and thus not being able to fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
Sessions’ recusal was forced in March 2017 by the exposure of his meetings in 2016 with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, which the then-US Senator did not reveal in his confirmation hearings.
Trump said last week that he would not dismiss Sessions before the November mid-term elections, but left open the option of doing so afterwards.
See TrumpWatch, Day 581: Attorney General Sessions Pushes Back v. Trump — Will He Be Fired?
….The Democrats, none of whom voted for Jeff Sessions, must love him now. Same thing with Lyin’ James Comey. The Dems all hated him, wanted him out, thought he was disgusting – UNTIL I FIRED HIM! Immediately he became a wonderful man, a saint like figure in fact. Really sick!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 3, 2018
Attacking Justice
At another, wider level, Trump’s Twitter blast — breaking a 36-hour period of relative quiet, as Trump fumed over tributes to the late John McCain — set out his belief that the Justice Department and courts are subservient to his political wishes.
Trump has repeatedly criticized the Department, the FBI, and individual judges, threatening to intervene to block their activity. He is facing possible obstruction of justice charges in the Russia investigation: he dismissed FBI Director James Comey in May 2017 to block the inquiry, and faces allegations that he tried to halt the FBI’s case against Michael Flynn — dismissed as National Security Advisor and later convicted on a felony charge of lying to the agency — and dictated a false statement about a June 2016 meeting between his top advisors and three Kremlin-linked envoys.
But Trump crossed a new line with his criticism of the indictments of the two GOP Representatives. Even some Republicans challenged the intervention. Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska, a member of the Judiciary Committee, said:
The United States is not some banana republic with a two-tiered system of justice — one for the majority and one for the minority party. These two men have been charged with crimes because of evidence, not because of who the president was when the investigations began.
In addition to Flynn, other Trump advisors convicted of charges, some related to the 2016 campaign, include former campaign manager Paul Manafort, long-time personal lawyer Michael Cohen, Manafort’s top aide Rick Gates, and campaign advisor George Papadopoulos.
Joyce Vance, a former federal prosecutor, said, “The President is trying to delegitimize the criminal justice system in this country because people close to him are at risk.”
The Justice Department declined to comment. However, Sessions issued a statement almost two weeks ago after another Trump blast of the Department and the Attorney General’s leadership:
While I am Attorney General, the actions of the Department of Justice will not be improperly influenced by political considerations. No nation has a more talented, more dedicated group of law enforcement investigators and prosecutors than the United States.