Last updated on September 26th, 2018 at 05:04 am
Donald Trump‘s perpetual war on Robert Mueller‘s special counsel investigation escalated further on Thursday with the president telling Bloomberg that he believes the Russia probe is “illegal.”
In the interview, not only did Trump question the legality of an investigation that has led to charges for four of his campaign associates, but he signaled that he could move to end the inquiry following the midterm elections by firing Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Trump refused to tell Bloomberg that he would keep his AG around after the November elections, instead simply saying, “I just would love to have him do a great job.”
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President Donald Trump said Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s job is safe at least until the midterm elections in November.
“I just would love to have him do a great job,†Trump said Thursday in an Oval Office interview with Bloomberg News. Asked if he’d keep Sessions beyond November, he declined to comment.
Trump has repeatedly attacked Sessions in private and in public for recusing himself in March 2017 from the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein then appointed Robert Mueller as special counsel to conduct what’s become a wide-ranging probe, including whether people around Trump conspired with the Russians and whether the president sought to obstruct justice.
Asked whether he would comply with a subpoena from Mueller to answer questions, Trump said in the interview that “I’ll see what happens.â€
“I view it differently. I view it as an illegal investigation†because “great scholars†have said that “there never should have been a special counsel,†the president said.
All hell would break loose if Trump fired Sessions
Trump is hoping that firing Sessions after the midterms would have less of an impact, but he couldn’t be more wrong. Removing his attorney general for not rigging the Russia investigation would send shockwaves through Washington.
The move would also signal to Mueller that Trump is trying to derail the investigation, and it would provide the special counsel with even more evidence that the president is trying to obstruct justice.
As The Washington Post noted on Wednesday, “Trump clearly wants an attorney general who will oversee these probes — unlike Sessions, who recused himself from Russia-related matters — and his actions suggest he wants someone who will do his bidding. Replacing Sessions could, theoretically at least, give him both.”
Removing Jeff Sessions from his post would certainly be another major step in the president’s ongoing effort to crush the Russia probe, but it would also bolster Robert Mueller‘s case against him.
Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
