Trump had White House lawyer urge Jeff Sessions not to recuse himself from Russia investigation, sources say
The claim raises fresh questions about whether the US President’s efforts to keep tabs on Russia probe amount to obstruction of justice
US President Donald Trump directed his White House counsel to tell Attorney General Jeff Sessions to not recuse himself from the Justice Department’s investigation into potential ties between Russia and the Trump campaign, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The conversation between Don McGahn, the president’s White House counsel, and Sessions took place on the president’s orders and occurred just before the attorney general announced that he would step aside from the ongoing inquiry into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, according to a person with knowledge of the interaction. Two other people confirmed details of the conversation between McGahn and Sessions.
The episode is known to special counsel Robert Mueller and his team of prosecutors and is likely of interest to them as they look into whether Trump’s actions as president, including the May firing of FBI Director James Comey, amount to improper efforts to obstruct the Russia investigation. Investigators recently concluded a round of interviews with current and former White House officials, including McGahn and former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus.
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
The New York Times first reported that Trump had McGahn lobby Sessions against a recusal.
Reached Thursday evening, Trump personal attorney John Dowd said, “I know nothing about that,” and hung up. Jay Sekulow, another of the president’s personal lawyers, did not immediately respond to a phone message seeking comment.
The Times’ report also said that an aide to Sessions approached a Capitol Hill staff member to seek “derogatory information” about Comey, in the hope of seeing stories in the media that would discredit him.
The White House also did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A Justice Department spokesman to the Times that the effort to get dirt on Comey did not happen.
But soon before the announcement, with White House officials anticipating that Sessions might be poised to step aside, McGahn spoke to Sessions by phone and urged him against recusing himself from the investigation.
During the conversation, according to people familiar with the matter, McGahn argued to Sessions that there was no reason or basis at that time for him to recuse. One person said McGahn also told him that recusal would do nothing to resolve concerns over whether Sessions had given a misleading answer at his confirmation hearing.
Sessions ultimately declined the urging, and McGahn ultimately accepted the conclusion of officials who believed that Sessions should recuse.
Sessions’ recusal left Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in charge of the Russia investigation. But once Trump fired Comey two months later, Rosenstein appointed Mueller, the former FBI director, to run the investigation and to report to him.
Four people, including Trump’s former campaign chairman and national security adviser, have been charged so far in the investigation.
The Sessions recusal has been a sore spot for Trump for months, with the president publicly deriding the decision and lamenting his selection of the former Alabama senator as his attorney general.
In a July interview with the Times, Trump said, “Well, 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.”
The top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee said the efforts by McGahn show Trump tried to interfere in the investigation, and called on the lawyer to testify before the panel.
“Mr McGahn’s actions under Mr Trump’s orders in either case would appear to be yet another incident pointing to an overall effort to obstruct and undermine the Department of Justice,” Representative Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat, said Thursday night in a statement.
Walter Shaub, who headed the Office of Government Ethics until last July, wrote in a tweet that McGahn’s interference in Session’s decision “infuriates me.”
“I am outraged by McGahn undermining the rule of law in the country I love,” Shaub wrote. “While McGahn was demanding Sessions’ break the law, I was on the other line with DOJ demanding Sessions recuse. What I think of your attack on America, McGahn, isn’t fit to print.”
