[National Review] President Donald Trump’s rant against Attorney General Jeff Sessions, in an interview with the New York Times, is a foolish bit of revisionist history. Sessions erred in the rashness and overbreadth of his recusal from the Russia investigation, but the president has himself to blame for the appointment of a special counsel.
Trump is the one who hired Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. It is Rosenstein whose order appointing Robert Mueller fails to set limits on Mueller’s investigative jurisdiction, thereby authorizing the fishing expedition that has Trump so ballistic. Moreover, it was Trump’s own botching of the firing of FBI director James Comey that spooked Rosenstein, inducing him to appease furious Democrats by giving Mueller free rein. Trump has a point, though not as much of one as he seems to think, in saying that Sessions should not have recused himself.
I’ve argued that the recusal was unnecessary, or at least premature. The disqualification regulation on which Sessions relied calls for an attorney general to step aside if "a criminal investigation or prosecution" causes him a conflict of interest.
At the time of his recusal, the Russia probe was a counterintelligence investigation. (For all we know, it still is.) For the umpty-umpth time, a counterintelligence investigation is not a criminal investigation, and no criminal prosecutions have resulted from it. Thus, there was nothing for Sessions to recuse himself from.
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