Jeff Sessions Just Admitted That He Violated His Recusal Pledge

JUNE 14 2017 11:22 AM

By Mark Joseph Stern

At various points during Jeff Sessions’ evasive testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, the attorney general made a startling admission: He had violated the scope of his recusal from the ongoing investigations into the 2016 presidential campaigns.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein drew out this confession most clearly by asking Sessions “how exactly” he was “involved in the termination of” former FBI Director James Comey. Sessions responded that “when Mr. Comey declined the Clinton prosecution, that was really a usurpation of the authority of the federal prosecutors in the Department of Justice. … He also commented at some length on the declination of the Clinton prosecution, which you should not do.” He elaborated:

< There was a clear view of mine and of Deputy Attorney General [Rod] Rosenstein, as he set out at some length in his memoranda which I adopted and sent forward to the president, that we had problems there and it was my best judgment that a fresh start at FBI was the appropriate thing to do. >

In other words, Sessions counseled the president to fire Comey at least in part because of the FBI director’s handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails.

As my colleague Leon Neyfakh pointed out on Tuesday, “the terms of Sessions’ recusal pledge were broader than he now wants us to believe.” Here’s the key line from the attorney general’s recusal statement:

< I have decided to recuse myself from any existing or future investigations of any matters related in any way to the campaigns for President of the United States. >

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http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/06/14/jeff_sessions_just_admitted_that_he_violated_his_recusal_pledge.html