At one point, in the midst of being battered on Twitter, being called out in Trump’s remarks to the press, and in general being the White House punching back of the week, Attorney General Jefferson Sessions offered his resignation. Trump didn’t take him up on his offer, and Sessions went back to quietly wrecking the civil rights division and frowning over doobies.
But the whole episode is now one of those things that Special Counsel Robert Mueller would like to know a bit more about.
In the weeks before special counsel Robert Mueller’s team interviewed Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the Justice Department turned over a cache of internal correspondence, including documents related to the proposed resignation of Sessions last year and emails with the White House about fired national security adviser Michael Flynn, according to a source with knowledge of the matter.
It’s likely that Mueller’s attention here isn’t so much on whether or not Sessions feelings were wounded, but just why Trump was so angry at his attorney general in the first place. Trump began expressing his fury after Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation. That suggests that Mueller’s interest isn’t so much concerned with Sessions attempt to resign, but just why was Trump so angry.
Donald Trump has expressed many times his anger that Sessions recused himself. But … why? Was Trump upset with Sessions because he wanted Sessions to remain in place where he could more easily quash anything related to the investigation and head off the installation of … someone like Robert Mueller.
And while he’s collecting documents at the White House, Mueller also made it known that he would like to talk to Trump’s own legal team.
Special counsel Robert Mueller is seeking to interview the former spokesman of President Donald Trump’s legal team as part of an investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, according to a source with knowledge of the matter.
Both of these discussions are likely related to obstruction charges. In the case of Sessions, Mueller could be looking into whether any of Trump’s correspondence over Sessions’ recusal and attempted resignation gets down to mentioning just why Jefferson Beauregard stepping away from the Russia investigation would be an issue for Trump.
When it comes to former legal spokesperson Mark Corallo, the questions could be related to another incident of obstruction—one that’s distinct enough to warrant its own warrant.
Among other things, Corallo may be questioned about reports that Trump dictated a misleading statement on his son’s June 2016 meeting with a group of Russians, the source said.
Congressional Republicans have already been running defense on potential obstruction issues related to the firing of James Comey, and threatened firing of—at least—Sessions, Rod Rosenstein, and Andrew McCabe. Republicans are likely to wave off any obstruction in those instances with the idea that Trump can fire anyone he wants, any time he wants, for no cause.
But it’s considerably harder to find the Constitutional basis by which Trump is allowed to create intentional cover stories for a meeting between his campaign staff and Russian representatives. That he did so while riding around in Air Force One only adds to the ugliness.