Silence from Sessions following Dems’ call for Russia probe recusal

Nothing but the sound of crickets from DOJ one day on from this:

Senate Democrats on Wednesday called for Attorney General Jeff Sessions to recuse himself from any executive branch investigation into possible ties between the Trump administration and Russia.

Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Sessions should not be involved because of potential conflicts of interest and because of Justice Department regulations that prohibit individuals with political ties to the subjects of an investigation from leading it. President Donald Trump nominated Sessions for the attorney general’s post and the senator was one of his earliest and staunchest backers in Congress.

“When the FBI looks into a matter, they do so alongside prosecutors from the Justice Department,” Schumer said. “Those prosecutors should not be reporting to the first senator who endorsed Donald Trump’s campaign.”

Salon‘s Heather Digby Parton provides some perspective on Sessions’s (and the GOP’s) hypocritical silence:

Yes, the Trump forces tried to insist on a grand jury to investigate that single meeting [the “tarmac meeting” between Loretta Lunch and Bill Clinton]. Today we have an attorney general who was knee-deep in the presidential campaign that now is (or soon will be) under investigation. Sessions stumped for Trump all over the country, gave a nomination speech at the Republican convention and was touted as “the clearinghouse for policy and philosophy” for the Trump administration.

Most importantly, Sessions was the chairman of Trump’s national security advisory committee during the campaign. When he was named to that position in March, Sessions said, “I am grateful for the opportunity to recommend and facilitate discussions among exceptional and experienced American military and diplomatic leaders to share insight and advice with Donald Trump, regardless of their political views.” Does it seem appropriate for someone in that post to be in charge of the investigation of the Trump campaign’s suspected connections to the Russian government?

At this moment there’s no evidence that Sessions was involved with or aware of the Russian contacts during the campaign, but there were certainly many more opportunities for him to hear about them than, say, during a one half-hour chat on a tarmac.

By: dave-dr-gonzo

David Hirsch, a.k.a. Dave "Doctor" Gonzo*, is a renegade record producer, video producer, writer, reformed corporate shill, and still-registered lobbyist for non-one-percenter performing artists and musicians. He lives in a heavily fortified compound in one of Manhattan's less trendy neighborhoods.

* Hirsch is the third person to use the pseudonym, a not-so-veiled tribute to journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson, with the permission of his predecessors Gene Gaudette of American Politics Journal (currently webmaster and chief bottlewasher at Liberaland) and Stephen Meese at Smashmouth Politics.