Political Wire

Trump Won’t Say if He’ll Fire Sessions

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President Trump “expressed his disappointment in Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Tuesday and questioned the importance of Mr. Sessions’s early endorsement of Mr. Trump’s candidacy, but the president declined to say whether he planned to fire him,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

Said Trump: “It’s not like a great loyal thing about the endorsement. I’m very disappointed in Jeff Sessions.”

When asked how long he would keep criticizing Session, he added: “I’m just looking at it. I’ll just see. It’s a very important thing.”

Sessions Is Growing ‘Pissed’ at Trump

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Attorney General Jeff Sessions has no plans to leave office, as friends tell the Daily Beast that “he’s grown angry with President Donald Trump following a series of attacks meant to marginalize his power and, potentially, encourage his resignation.”

Said one ally: “Sessions is totally pissed off about it. It’s beyond insane. It’s cruel and it’s insane and it’s stupid.”

Scaramucci Confirms Trump Wants Sessions Gone

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White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci told radio host Hugh Hewitt that “you’re probably right” President Trump wants to fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Said Scaramucci: “I have an enormous amount of respect for the Attorney General, but I do know the president pretty well and if there’s this level of tension in the relationship that, that’s public, you’re probably right.”

Trump Steps Up Talk of Firing Sessions

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President Trump and his advisers “are privately discussing the possibility of replacing Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and some confidants are floating prospects who could take his place were he to resign or be fired, according to people familiar with the talks,” the Washington Post reports.

“Members of Trump’s circle, including White House officials, have increasingly raised the question among themselves in recent days as the president has continued to vent his frustration with the attorney general.”

Associated Press: “He has speculated aloud to allies in recent days about the potential consequences of firing Sessions, according to three people who have recently spoken to the president. They demanded anonymity to discuss private conversations.”

Trump Mulls Replacing Sessions with Giuliani

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President Trump is so unhappy with Attorney General Jeff Sessions that he has raised the possibility of bringing back Rudolph Giuliani to replace him, Mike Allen reports.

“Giuliani would have a tough time getting 50 Republicans senators to vote to confirm him. He was such an early and ardent Trump backer that he wouldn’t be seen as an independent guardian of the department in these tumultuous times.”

“In fact, the nomination could be seen as Trump throwing gasoline on a fire. And Giuliani’s stop-and-frisk police policy as New York mayor, and clients since then, also would be controversial with many senators.”

Sessions Discussed Campaign with Russian Ambassador

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“Russia’s ambassador to Washington told his superiors in Moscow that he discussed campaign-related matters, including policy issues important to Moscow, with Jeff Sessions during the 2016 presidential race, contrary to public assertions by the embattled attorney general,” the Washington Post reports.

“Ambassador Sergey Kislyak’s accounts of two conversations with Sessions — then a top foreign policy adviser to Republican candidate Donald Trump — were intercepted by U.S. spy agencies, which monitor the communications of senior Russian officials both in the United States and in Russia.”

“Sessions initially failed to disclose his contacts with Kislyak and then said that the meetings were not about the Trump campaign.”

Trump Mostly Blames Sessions and Rosenstein

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New York Times: “Inside the White House, those close to the president say he has continued to fume about the actions of Justice Department officials, his anger focused mostly on Mr. Rosenstein for appointing Mr. Mueller and on Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a longtime political ally whose decision to recuse himself from the Russia case in March enraged Mr. Trump…”

“While he has left open the possibility of dismissing Mr. Mueller and began considering it shortly after the special counsel was appointed last month, the president’s anger has been largely trained on Mr. Sessions and Mr. Rosenstein, whom he views less as executors of law than as salaried staff.”

Associated Press: “Trump advisers and confidants describe the president as increasingly angry over the investigation, yelling at television sets in the White House carrying coverage and insisting he is the target of a conspiracy to discredit — and potentially end — his presidency.”

Lobbyist for Russia Says He Attended Sessions Dinners

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“An American lobbyist for Russian interests who helped craft an important foreign policy speech for Donald Trump has confirmed that he attended two dinners hosted by Jeff Sessions during the 2016 campaign, apparently contradicting the attorney general’s sworn testimony given this week,” The Guardian reports.

“Sessions testified under oath on Tuesday that he did not believe he had any contacts with lobbyists working for Russian interests over the course of Trump’s campaign. But Richard Burt, a former ambassador to Germany during the Reagan administration, who has represented Russian interests in Washington, told the Guardian that he could confirm previous media reports that stated he had contacts with Sessions at the time.”

Mueller Could Use Grand Jury to Get Sessions to Answer

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Mike Allen: “Dems smell blood, but it’s not necessarily Jeff Sessions’. The attorney general held his own at his high-stakes Senate hearing, at one point raising his voice to declare he was ‘not stonewalling,’ and resented the ‘secret innuendo being leaked out there about me.'”

“But Democrats tell me that with his dodges, artful and otherwise… Sessions left a host of openings — about himself and President Trump — that congressional investigators will pursue. Bob Mueller’s prosecutors can be expected to do the same.”

Said ex-Justice department spokesman Matt Miller: “Sessions can probably get out of ever giving the answer to a Republican Congress, but my guess is his performance earned him a ticket to a grand jury.”

Sessions Denies Suggestion He Colluded with Russia

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Attorney General Jeff Sessions forcefully denied meeting with any Russian officials in 2016 to discuss the presidential campaign, calling allegations that he had undisclosed meetings with them an “appalling and detestable lie,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“He also specifically denied holding any private meetings with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. at the Mayflower Hotel, a Washington establishment that has been the subject of speculation in recent days.”

Sessions Testifies Under Oath Today

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Rick Klein: “For a guy who’s recused himself from the hot story, he sure does pop up a lot. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is an interesting man for the Senate Intelligence Committee to speak with today for a range of reasons that stretch back through the Trump candidacy and presidency. His appearance is being met with a tinge of trepidation, and a whole lot of anticipation, inside a White House where loyalty pledges work to buck up the president’s mood, though not necessarily his legal standing. Part of what makes Sessions intriguing is that he is, by accounts public and private, loyal to President Trump, loyal enough to have offered to resign weeks before he offered to testify.”

“Trump may not be happy with him these days but he’s stuck with him. Now he’ll be stuck with his version of events; he already has to contend with contradictions from his fired FBI director, and can’t afford a two-against-one he-said-he-said.  Sessions serves a president whose relationship with facts is famously casual. But when Sessions talks about his conversations with James Comey, and doesn’t talk about his conversations with Trump, the attorney general of the United States knows the consequences of perjury, and surely wants to be on the side of truth.”

The Hill: Five things to watch in Sessions hearing.

Is Sessions About to Commit Perjury?

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Just Security: “Following James Comey’s hearing on Capitol Hill, the Department of Justice issued a statement which flatly contradicts something that Comey said in his testimony. It appears that Comey and Jeff Sessions have directly opposing positions on how the Attorney General responded when Comey says he implored Sessions to prevent the president from directly communicating with him as FBI director. It is increasingly common these days for the administration to include a falsehood in an official statement. Repeating that falsehood under oath before Congress is an entirely different matter. It’s a federal crime. And these proceedings have a special counsel looking over them.”

“What to watch for next: On Tuesday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions will appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee. If he repeats a claim that is contained in the Department of Justice’s ‘Statement on Testimony of Former FBI Director James Comey,’ it is very likely that Sessions will commit perjury or a felony false statement or misrepresentation (which does not require being under oath).”

Trump Aides Tell Him to Keep Sessions

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Aides to President Trump are urging him not to fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions despite rifts between the two men, Reuters reports.

“Political and legal advisers inside the White House have told Trump over the past month that firing Sessions would create another political fire storm and make it more difficult to fill key jobs inside his administration, the sources said on the condition of anonymity.”

Said one: “That’s the advice he’s been given. But he might not listen to that advice.”

Taegan Goddard

Taegan Goddard

Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.

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