I could be wrong about this.
Over the last couple of days, Donald Trump has been very critical of Jeff Sessions.
President Trump criticized Attorney General Jeff Sessions in an interview broadcast early Thursday, saying he “never took control of the Justice Department.”
“The Dems are very strong in the Justice Department,” Trump said on “Fox & Friends.” “And I put in an attorney general that never took control of the Justice Department, Jeff Sessions. Never took control of the Justice Department.
“It’s sort of an incredible thing,” he added.
“We have this country going so well,” Trump said, adding that “[Secretary of State] Mike Pompeo is doing incredibly, all of my people, they’re doing incredibly.”
Today Sessions pushed back
Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired back against President Donald Trump on Thursday, saying the Justice Department will not be “improperly influenced by political considerations.” Earlier, Trump attacked him on television, asking “what kind of a man is this?”
“I took control of the Department of Justice the day I was sworn in, which is why we have had unprecedented success at effectuating the President’s agenda,” Sessions said in the statement, which was posted on Twitter by Justice Department spokesperson Sarah Isgur Flores.
During an interview that aired hours earlier on “Fox & Friends,” Trump said Sessions “never took control of the Justice Department,” criticizing the former Alabama senator for recusing himself from the investigation into possible links between Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and Russia.
Then Lindsey Graham said he’d support replacing Jeff Sessions:
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Thursday he believes President Trump will name a new attorney general “sooner rather than later” in his first term.
Speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill, Graham said Trump is “entitled to an attorney general he has faith in,” but said it’d be a “nonstarter” in the Senate for Trump to try to replace Jeff Sessions before the midterms.
“The idea of having a new attorney general in the first term of President Trump’s administration, I think is very likely,” said Graham.
Trump lashed out at Sessions once again in a “Fox & Friends” exclusive interview, criticizing the former Alabama senator for recusing himself from the Russia investigation, now overseen by his top deputy, Rod Rosenstein.
Also today Sessions met with Trump:
President Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions played nice during a meeting Thursday afternoon in the Oval Office, despite fighting publicly just hours earlier about how the former Republican senator has performed at his job atop the Justice Department.
One source described the meeting as a “win” to the Washington Examiner. The meeting, which was about criminal justice reform, stayed on topic, the source said.
The meeting with White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, and White House communications director Mercedes Schlapp was pre-planned, but came hours after Trump told Fox News early Thursday morning that Sessions “never took control of the Justice Department.”
It was suggested that Trump might fire Sessions after the mid terms.
Hmm.
Sessions has at least 27 leak investigations ongoing. Thus far (that we know of) they’ve bagged Reality Winner and James Wolfe. Wolfe is thought to have shared the entire unredacted Carter Page FISA app with NY Times reporter Ali Watkins. You will note that the unredacted version of the FISA app has not been leaked, most likely because it would be the proverbial stake through the heart of the Russian hoax.
Trump just might fire Sessions, which would free him to appoint someone new who would not be recused from the Russian hoax, but pretty much anyone Trump chose would be stonewalled by democrats (and Jeff Flake) for who knows how long.
Thing is, Trump knows everything. He’s the President. He can know everything. As I have previously noted, Trump thrives on chaos. He will have people chasing their tails in one direction while he gets other things done. While the left plays checkers, Trump is playing chess.
I think if Trump was really going to fire Sessions, he wouldn’t be making a lot of noises about it.No, I suspect something else is afoot. While Sessions has rebuffed calls for another Special Counsel, he has John Huber. And Huber’s working with the IG.
Questions surround the work of U.S. Attorney John Huber, who is playing a key role in one of the multiple investigations surrounding President Trump and the Justice Department.
Known as a no-nonsense prosecutor whose primary experience is fighting violent crime, the U.S. attorney for Utah is an appointee of President Obama whose job was saved by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) when Trump asked state attorneys to resign so that he could field a new slate of professionals.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions quietly tapped Huber — apparently last fall — to work in tandem with the Justice Department’s inspector general to determine whether conservative allegations of abuse at the FBI and the Justice Department merit investigation.
It’s an unusual arrangement, and one that fall short of demands from the right that Sessions name a second special counsel. That idea has generated controversy, with critics saying the second appointee would inevitably impede the work of special counsel Robert Mueller.
The administration has provided few public details about Huber’s assignment beyond a lengthy message from Sessions to Congress in which he argued that his appointment should be sufficient to address the concerns raised by GOP lawmakers.
The Justice Department has declined to comment on his budget or what Sessions meant when he said that Huber is working “in cooperation” with Inspector General Michael Horowitz. Horowitz’s office also declined to comment.
White House officials see Huber as a second special counsel in everything but name because he has the authority to prosecute, a task the inspector general has to refer to a U.S. attorney.
There have been no leaks from that team. Jonathan Turley called it a brilliant move:
Instead, Turley explained that Sessions has ordered Huber to “team up with the inspector general (IG) within the Justice Department to investigate these matters.”
Sessions informed Congress in his letter that all the matters recommended for investigation by Goodlatte, Gowdy, and Grassley are “fully within the scope of [Huber’s] existing mandate.” He also informed the chairmen that Inspector General Michael Horowitz, who is working with Huber, has a staff of 470 investigators, giving Huber access to enormous investigative firepower that far exceeds the staff of any special counsel.
That point is critical because as Sessions’ March 29 letter explains, the inspector general’s jurisdiction to conduct civil and criminal investigations includes “actions taken by former employees after they have left government service.” Then Huber can act on any of those matters.
As a U.S. attorney, Huber has full authority to empanel a grand jury and to file criminal charges. A grand jury can be empaneled anywhere, which means that it could be a group of citizens from deep-red Utah – in the heart of Trump country – instead of the D.C. Swamp that decides whether to hand down indictments for felony prosecution.
“The Inspector General’s jurisdiction extends not only to allegations of legal violations, but also to allegations that Department employees violated established practices as well,” Sessions added in his letter, which means that the IG’s report can hold people accountable even for actions that do not violate a specific statute.
Thus, there is effectively a second Special Counsel already in place. It would explain why Gowdy and Goodlatte seem unfazed by current events. I think they have Flake on a hook.
It will not surprise me if a few things happen in the September-October time frame. First, I think Trump will order the Carter Page FISA app declassified. That most likely will crush the Russian hoax and demonstrate that this has been, as we here have said repeatedly, a conspiracy by the FBI, DOJ and White House to overthrow an American Presidential election. Then I think Huber may begin dropping indictments.
Late September into October would be a good time frame. It would crush democrats right on the eve of the election cycle and – importantly- not give them time to get off their heels. It would guarantee keeping the House and the Senate.
Chess, not checkers.
I could be wrong about all of this. But if I’m right, it’s going to be the best autumn ever.
DrJohn has been a health care professional for more than 30 years. In addition to clinical practice he has done extensive research and has published widely with over 70 original articles and abstracts in the peer-reviewed literature. DrJohn is well known in his field and has lectured on every continent except for Antarctica. He has been married to the same wonderful lady for over 30 years and has three kids- two sons, both of whom are attorneys and one daughter on her way into the field of education.
DrJohn was brought up with the concept that one can do well if one is prepared to work hard but nothing in life is guaranteed.
Except for liberals being foolish.
Aside from Trump beating Hillary, there has been very few victories of the forces that want the United States that uses it’s strength, power and influence to provide not only great opportunities for the citizens, but the ability to render aid wherever needed around the world (I like the idea of the power of capitalism being able to help those in need; it’s good advertising) to survive. The powers of good, as it were, have slept far too long and the powers that would degrade the US from within have been very active and effective.
As attractive and encouraging as all this sounds, I refuse to get my hopes up, as the left did believing all their self-serving, patting each other on the back polls and predictions of 2016, just to have them dashed when nothing happens. However, I realize the war to combat the deep state infiltration of malevolent leftists cannot proceed or succeed with the leaks and grandstanding that characterizes those leftist offensives. I also believe, based on the faith and confidence I have in the FBI, that the stories of a majority of agents, disgusted and embarrassed by the politicization of the DOJ, being ready to come forward and testify against this leftist deep state are based on fact. Further, there is no need for them; the media is not going to support the effort by promoting it and telegraphing their punches will assure failure. So, the fact that we hear nothing about it does not necessarily indicate nothing being done.
I pray to God you are right. This country is in desperate need of this.
FBI did not move in on terrorist training camp with starving children, the locals went in.
What is Sessions doing? Could he at least make sure all FOIA requests get done or get up to speed on jihad in America
22 Jihad Training Camps in the US – FBI Refuses to Take Action
All I can say is-I hope you’re right. I will say that Trump always seems to be several steps ahead of his opponents and, hopefully, this is one of the times.
@kitt: Perhaps the Obama-era rules of engagement that state that anything and everything, including a crime in progress, which has any Islamic elements within it is to be left alone is still in place.
It’s amazing that Trump’s detractors miss how deliberate he is with his words. He plays them, easily.
Well said!
There are others out there who have similar views including Bill Mitchell who has Trump figured out a lot better than most. There were statements made today where they seemed to be playing off each other. Trump seemed to foreshadow that the hammer was going to drop. Other movement has also been going on under the radar. A local news station in Little Rock reported a couple of weeks ago that on two separate occasions, a DOJ 757 was seen at the airport being loaded up with boxes of documents. Little Rock is the site where the investigation into the Clinton Foundation is being conducted. It also came out today that the FBI looked at less than 1% of the emails on Weiner’s laptop before clearing Hillary. Another Comey lie gets outed.
Hopefully these coupsters and crooks get what’s coming to them. Confidence in our government needs to be restored.
“While the left plays checkers, Trump is playing chess.”
And he hires only the best people.
Sounds like you’ve been reading the Q claims, which I don’t buy at all and think is a disinformation operation by the Left. But, IF a surprise of this type is coming, surely it would be timed to affect the midterms.
I hope a surprise is sprung but I’ll be one of the surprised people if it happens.
I suspect that if the Q thing was indeed a leftist disinformation attempt, Trump would have blown it out of the water by now.
Didn’t I read that Sessions just did an inspection of Gitmo? Is he counting available cells, perhaps?
@Meremortal:
Did you once see a reference to “Q”? I have no interest in whatever that is. It’s way too cryptic, unnecessarily so. This is simply my hunch. I also think Veselnitskaya was a plant and Mifsud and Halper were plants to set up Pdop and Page. Flynn was ambushed.
@DrJohn: Hi Doctor, hope you are well. I agree with you about Q, the “messages” are mostly silly and Q has no reason to exist and never has any information that isn’t open source. It was just interesting how your comment paralleled Q’s assertion about Sessions and Trump and I hoped you would respond one way or the other.
Cheers and keep up the good work.