Not Enough. Jeff Sessions' Russian recusal is a good start but we need an outside investigation

By Robert Schlesinger | Managing Editor for Opinion
March 3, 2017, at 6:00 a.m.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions misleadingly answered a question he wasn't asked and then tried to clean it up by refuting allegations that weren't made.

This is full-spectrum care and feeding of a metastasizing scandal: Whether or not the revelation that Sessions met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 campaign – despite telling Congress otherwise – proves damning (and it may), the attendant cover-up, hubris and general ineptitude provided more questions than answers about connections between Donald Trump and the government of a chief foreign adversary.

It's no wonder that the Sessions news prompted a voluble round of furor, from House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi calling for the attorney general's immediate resignation to Republicans like House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz and others calling for his recusal from any campaign-related investigation, which did come Thursday afternoon.

That was an adequate start but it's not enough. Merely removing Sessions from the equation won't guarantee a robust search for the truth. We need an independent investigation.

The episode stems from Sessions' appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee to testify on his nomination to be attorney general. At the hearing, Minnesota Sen. Al Franken noted a report that the Trump campaign had had ongoing communications with the Russian government. If the reports prove true, Franken asked, "what will you do?"

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