begin quote from:
- The independence of the Justice Department is no theoretical question
- Trump, judging from his Twitter account and other statements, seems bent on using it to punish foes
Analysis: Trump goes after basic democratic norms and Sessions tiptoes
Analysis: Trump goes after basic democratic norms and Sessions tiptoes
Story highlights
Washington (CNN)One
day, President Trump calls the US justice system a "laughingstock." The
next day he wants it used to investigate his 2016 election opponent
Hillary Clinton. He appears to hold unparalleled disregard for the
independence of the US justice system.
So,
on Tuesday when Attorney General Jeff Sessions testified for five hours
before the House judiciary committee, some members asked whether
Sessions -- the nation's top law enforcement officer -- could be
independent and uphold the rule of law.
Sessions sounded less like a man trying to protect the rule of law than one trying to protect his job.
The
independence of the Justice Department is no theoretical question.
Trump, judging from his Twitter account and other statements, seems bent
on using it to punish foes. His public pressure on the department and
the man who runs it is unprecedented.
After
previously calling Sessions "beleaguered" and "weak," Trump declared
November 3 on Twitter: "Everybody is asking why the Justice Department
(and FBI) isn't looking into all of the dishonesty going on with crooked
Hillary & the Dems."
On
Monday, DOJ said it was considering appointing a special counsel to
look into allegations of wrongdoing regarding the 2010 sale of a uranium
company to Russia, which the State Department under Secretary Hillary
Clinton approved.
"In a functioning
democracy," Rep. John Conyers, D-Michigan, asked Sessions, "is it
common for the leader of the country to order the criminal justice
system to retaliate against his political opponents?"
Sessions
declined to give a "yes or no" answer as Conyers requested, but said,
"the Department of Justice can never be used to retaliate politically
against opponents, and that would be wrong."
Conyers continued, and Sessions demurred.
"Should
the President of the United States make public comments that might
influence a pending criminal investigation?" Conyers asked.
"Well,
I don't know exactly what the facts of what you're raising, and what
amounts to the concern you have," the attorney general said.
Sessions
said he would not be "improperly influenced," yet immediately added,
"The President speaks his mind. He's bold and direct about what he says.
The people elected him. But we do our duty every day based on the laws
and fact."
As he sat alone before
the 41-member committee, television cameras rolling, Sessions tiptoed
around questions of basic democratic norms that at any other time would
have been easily answered.
He was
buffeted by both sides: Republicans who want a fresh investigation into
Clinton; Democrats who worry about such a move and, more importantly,
who believe Sessions has not been candid about contacts with the
Russians while he helped run the Trump campaign. Justice Department
special counsel Robert Mueller and several congressional committees are
investigating Trump campaign links to Russian interference in the 2016
presidential election.
Sessions
rejected claims that he had earlier lied about his Russian-related
activities. He said he had merely forgotten relevant conversations. He
said previously and Tuesday that he was testifying "to the best of (his)
recollection."
The Russia-related lines of Q-and-A drew most of the headlines.
Yet
Trump's extraordinary disdain for the nation's judges and prosecutors
made Sessions' less than robust defense of DOJ independence equally
salient.
"You said when you started
your testimony today that there is nothing more important than
advancing the rule of law," Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Florida, said. "And when
you answer the way you have, it suggests that the rule of law is
crumbling at our feet."
Turner on new special counsel: It's ridiculous 01:03
Sessions
had declined to answer directly Deutch's questions raising the specter
of Trump interference in the Russia investigation, querying on whether
the President had the power to fire Mueller or pardon any Trump
associates charged in the scandal.
In
his defense, Sessions said he had not researched certain legal
questions or fully thought out matters related to the presidential
authority brought so clearly to the fore in the Russia probe Trump
abhors. (Last May, when he fired FBI Director James Comey, who had been
leading the bureau's investigation, Trump told NBC he had been thinking
"of this Russia thing" and frustrated at the attention it was getting.)
For his part, Sessions said he was just being cautious.
"The attorney general," he said, "should not be giving legal opinions from the seat of his britches."
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