Russian Scandal

Trump’s Sleaziest Move So Far May Also Turn Out To Be His Stupidest One

by Samuel Warde No Comments

Trump may have just made his stupidest move ever as his administration continues to be overwhelmed by the possible criminal implications of the Russia investigation.

Trump publicly turned against his Attorney General, Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, in a stunning interview published by the New York Times last week.

Trump said on Wednesday that he never would have appointed Attorney General Jeff Sessions had he known Mr. Sessions would recuse himself from overseeing the Russia investigation that has dogged his presidency, calling the decision “very unfair to the president.”

In a remarkable public break with one of his earliest political supporters, Mr. Trump complained that Mr. Sessions’s decision ultimately led to the appointment of a special counsel that should not have happened. “Sessions should have never recused himself, and if he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me before he took the job and I would have picked somebody else,” Mr. Trump said.

Trump’s betrayal of Sessions is arguably his sleaziest move so far, considering Sessions’ early support for the unlikely Republican nominee.

As the New York Times reports, Sessions “was the first senator to back Mr. Trump, lending some credibility to a candidate whom many in the party viewed as either a joke or a menace.”

When an audiotape became public of Mr. Trump talking to an “Access Hollywood” host in explicit terms about grabbing women, and Reince Priebus, then the Republican National Committee chairman, suggested that Mr. Trump drop out of the race, he urged Mr. Priebus to wait and see how things played out.

The American Conservative, the bi-monthly journal of opinion published by the American Ideas Institute, echoes that sentiment reporting:

Once again, we see that Trump has no loyalty to anybody but himself. Jeff Sessions was one of the early supporters of Trump, and stood by Trump’s side when nobody else in Washington would. And this is how Trump rewards him. …. There is no stability in this administration. No reason to trust anything the president says, even if you think he’s on your side.

On Friday The Washington Post reported the explosive news that, contrary to past statements, Sessions met with Sergey Kislyak, the Russian Ambassador to the U.S., to discuss Trump campaign matters during the 2016 presidential election:

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, according to current and former U.S. officials.

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 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.

Several notables have openly speculated that the Sessions betrayal is even worse – that the Trump administration itself leaked those intercepts after the New York Times interview failed to push Sessions into resigning.

Scott Dworkin, co-founder of The Democratic Coalition, expressed similar concerns:

Former intelligence officer (+36 years) and New York Times best-selling author Malcolm Nance attributed the leak to Republican Rep. Devin Nunes, who had to recuse himself from the House Intelligence Committee Russia probe in April amid allegations that he was collaborating with the White House.

Richard Painter, Chief Ethics lawyer for George W. Bush, tweeted his own suspicions:

Journalist and frequent CNN contributor Garrett Graff tweeted: “Every GOP figure I’ve spoken to at #AspenSecurity assumes Trump leaked this to force Sessions out. ‘Certainly not a Mueller leak,’ one said.”

However that information was leaked, the Trump administration’s willingness to toss Sessions out of the bus could prove to be their stupidest move to date. For one thing, in his seeming eagerness to get rid of Sessions, Trump all but admitted the information regarding the Sessions Kislyak intercepts is true. This decision likely backs Trump into a corner that he cannot easily escape in the future.

As Vox reports: “given everything else that Trump officials have been caught doing so far, this [leak] only adds to the cloud of doubt surrounding the president and his team’s ties with Russia.”

There are other grave problems confronting the White House, such as a Saturday report from the New York Times confirming that: “Nothing in the Constitution or federal statutes says that sitting presidents are immune from prosecution.”

Trump has also reportedly discussed pardoning himself and others, but as Jon Cooper, Chairman of the Democratic Coalition and former campaign chair for President Obama, tweeted:

And, as the New York Times reported in an op-ed piece, “If Trump Pardons, It Could Be a Crime.”

Last but not least, noted Harvard Law School professor Laurence Tribe tweeted the following memo to Trump: “Anyone you pardon can be compelled to testify without any grant of immunity, and that testimony could undo you.”

Samuel Warde
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