Why Jeff Sessions Won’t Give a Straight Answer
The attorney general and his deputy aren’t dodging questions to protect Trump. They’re protecting themselves.
By
William Saletan
Attorney General Jeff Sessions testifies before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill on Tuesday.
Alex Wong/Getty Images
Did President Trump fire FBI Director James Comey to get rid of the Russian “cloud” over his administration? Lots of evidence
suggests he
did. Comey documented
meetings and phone calls in which Trump pressed him to “lift the cloud” and “let go” of the investigation into Trump’s departed national security adviser, Michael Flynn, who was caught up in the scandal. Leading up to the firing, all of Trump’s
public complaints about the FBI
focused on
Russia. And in an NBC interview two days after the firing, Trump said that while making the decision, he had thought about “
this Russia thing” and what a “made-up story” it was.
WILLIAM SALETAN
Will Saletan writes about politics, science, technology, and other stuff for
Slate. He’s the author of
Bearing Right.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0520243366/?tag=slatmaga-20
Now, as special counsel Robert Mueller
escalates his inquiry into possible
obstruction of justice, there’s an extra reason to suspect that Trump is guilty: The two lawyers with whom the president collaborated in the firing, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, aren’t vouching for Trump’s innocence. They’re giving answers and nonanswers that seem carefully crafted to allow for the possibility that they were used.
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Trump’s original story, distilled in his May 9
termination letter, was that he fired Comey based on
written recommendations received that day from Rosenstein and Sessions. That
wasn’t true, and Rosenstein’s
anger at being portrayed as the prime mover quickly forced the White House to
backpedal. In his NBC interview, Trump admitted that he had already made up his mind by May 8, a day before the memos were written.
Since then, Rosenstein and Sessions have gone further.
Testifying on Tuesday before the
Senate Intelligence Committee, Sessions said Trump had directly solicited the memos. Rosenstein, in a
statement to Congress on May 18, denied that his memo was “a survey of FBI morale or performance” or “a statement of reasons to justify a for-cause termination,” as Trump and the White House had implied. Both men articulated arguments against Comey that were completely different from, and essentially contrary to, Trump’s public beefs with the director. They also noted that their arguments against Comey were long-standing, which leaves Trump to explain why he suddenly adopted them.
On Monday, Rosenstein testified before a
Senate Appropriations subcommittee. He refused to say what Trump, Sessions, or anyone else had in mind when they solicited or used his memo. “My memo truthfully reflects my views,” he testified. Beyond that, he said, “I do not know what was in anybody else’s mind. I understand there are serious allegations that have been raised, and I think that it’s up to Director Mueller to determine … whether any of these issues are within the scope of his investigation.”
The Russia-Trump collusion story is a total hoax, when will this taxpayer funded charade end?” Rather than defend Trump, Sessions defended himself. “The memorandum that Deputy Rosenstein wrote and my letter that accompanied it represented my views of the situation,” he said.
Top Comment
"I am, I think, invoking the double-secret privilege." "Which privilege is that?" "I am invoking the triple-secret privilege to not tell you what the double-secret privilege is.
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Republicans tried to use Sessions as a witness for Trump’s innocence. Sen. John Cornyn suggested to him that “the Russian investigation did not factor into your recommendation to fire Director Comey,” since Sessions had recused himself on March 2. Sessions affirmed that statement. But he was denying that Russia drove his recommendation, not that Russia drove Trump’s decision.
If Mueller concludes that Trump fired Comey over the Russia investigation, nothing Sessions or Rosenstein said in their hearings will turn out to be false. Sessions denied any collusion with Russia, and Rosenstein said he’s leaving such questions to Mueller. But on the question of whether Trump fired Comey to obstruct justice, and whether the president orchestrated a cover story to conceal that obstruction, the two men Trump enlisted are taking care not to vouch for his innocence. Maybe that’s because they can’t. Maybe they know they were used, and they don’t want to get caught in a web of lies.
Sessions Isn’t Dodging Questions to Protect Trump. He’s Protecting Himself.
