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Trump Calls Sessions’s Handling of Surveillance Abuse Allegations ‘Disgraceful’ Trump Calls Sessions’s Handling of Surveillance Abuse Allegations ‘Disgraceful’
(about 5 hours later)
WASHINGTON — President Trump criticized his own attorney general, Jeff Sessions, on Wednesday and called him “DISGRACEFUL” after Mr. Sessions indicated that the Justice Department’s watchdog would look into accusations of potential abuse of surveillance laws rather than the agency’s own lawyers. WASHINGTON — The long-simmering friction between President Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions erupted into an extraordinary public face-off on Wednesday as the investigation into Russia’s election interference roiled the administration and raised new questions about the independence of law enforcement agencies.
In a 43-word tweet, Mr. Trump scolded the attorney general, belittled the role of the Justice Department’s independent watchdog and pressured the agency to speed up its investigations. Mr. Trump excoriated Mr. Sessions for not ordering his own investigation into the handling of the Russia inquiry during its early months, calling his attorney general “DISGRACEFUL” in a lacerating Twitter post. Mr. Sessions, who has absorbed blows from the White House since last year mostly in silence, responded with a rare statement defending his “integrity and honor.”
Mr. Sessions, who rarely reacts publicly to the president’s insults, defended the Justice Department in a statement hours later. The back-and-forth, unthinkable in previous administrations, came during a week of unrest at the White House. As the president railed about the special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s Russia investigation, his son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, was stripped of his top-secret security clearance. One of Mr. Trump’s closest aides, Hope Hicks, announced that she will step down as communications director. And Mr. Trump’s former campaign chairman was back in court pleading not guilty to new charges.
“We have initiated the appropriate process that will ensure complaints against this department will be fully and fairly acted upon if necessary,” Mr. Sessions said. “As long as I am the attorney general, I will continue to discharge my duties with integrity and honor, and this department will continue to do its work in a fair and impartial manner according to the law and Constitution.” The schism between Mr. Trump and his attorney general has become a persistent subplot of his administration, an almost Shakespearean rift between a president and one of his earliest and strongest supporters. Mr. Sessions was the first senator to back Mr. Trump’s candidacy but has fallen out of favor because the president wanted an attorney general who would protect him and investigate his political enemies.
The president’s tweet was the latest example of Mr. Trump publicly excoriating Mr. Sessions and wading into Justice Department investigations. Though previous presidents have allowed law enforcement a large degree of independence to keep from influencing their inquiries, Mr. Trump has consistently called for investigations into his political rivals and he has criticized Mr. Sessions for not being more aggressive. The two rarely speak except in formal meetings, and both sides describe the relationship as broken. In between the president’s tweet and Mr. Sessions’s response on Wednesday, the two stood awkwardly yards apart at a Capitol memorial service honoring the Rev. Billy Graham. Mr. Trump later fumed in the Oval Office about Mr. Sessions’s statement, according to advisers, once again leaving the attorney general’s fate in question.
It was not immediately clear what prompted the president’s outrage over Mr. Sessions, who last year recused himself from the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible coordination with Trump associates. But the president’s options are constrained, advisers said, because he recognizes that he would have a difficult time winning Senate confirmation for a replacement. Mr. Sessions served there for 20 years, and his former colleagues have bristled at Mr. Trump’s attacks. Any dismissal of Mr. Sessions would be taken by Democrats and even some Republicans as an effort to seize control of the Russia investigation and could trigger a bipartisan backlash.
The attorney general, one of Mr. Trump’s earliest supporters in his election campaign, has been a regular target of the president, who has criticized Mr. Sessions for his recusal — the first in a series of steps that led to the appointment of an independent special counsel to handle the ongoing Russia investigation. At one point, Mr. Sessions was prepared to resign. The exchange on Wednesday began when the president lashed out at Mr. Sessions for seeming to suggest that the Justice Department’s inspector general would look into Republican charges of misconduct in the opening stage of the Russia investigation rather than opening his own examination.
Republicans have accused Justice Department and F.B.I. officials of abusing their powers by surveilling a former Trump campaign aide, Carter Page, during the course of an investigation into Russian meddling. As part of that investigation, law enforcement officials were granted permission to spy on Mr. Page from the secretive court that issues warrants under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. “Why is A.G. Jeff Sessions asking the Inspector General to investigate potentially massive FISA abuse,” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter. “Will take forever, has no prosecutorial power and already late with reports on Comey etc. Isn’t the I.G. an Obama guy? Why not use Justice Department lawyers? DISGRACEFUL!”
Mr. Sessions suggested on Tuesday that the department’s inspector general will look into the Republican concerns but stopped short of saying that a fresh inquiry was underway. Republicans have accused Justice Department and F.B.I. officials of abusing their powers while President Barack Obama was still in office by using information from a dossier prepared by a former British spy paid by Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign to justify surveillance of a former Trump campaign adviser, Carter Page. Officials did not fully inform the court that issues warrants under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, of the origin of the information, Republicans complained. Democrats have called that a distortion and distraction.
“We believe the Department of Justice must adhere to the high standards in the FISA court,” Mr. Sessions said in response to a reporter’s question on Tuesday about the allegations made by Republicans. “I think that’s just the appropriate thing; the inspector general will take that as one of the matters he’ll deal with.” The inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, was appointed by Mr. Obama in 2012, but previously worked for the Justice Department under Republican and Democratic presidents. He has already been investigating how James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director until Mr. Trump fired him last spring, handled the inquiry into Mrs. Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was secretary of state.
Shortly after the president’s tweet, Mr. Trump and Mr. Sessions stood just a few yards from each other at the memorial service for the Rev. Billy Graham, who died last week. The Justice Department declined to comment on Wednesday. Mr. Sessions seemed to take umbrage at the president’s latest message. “We have initiated the appropriate process that will ensure complaints against this department will be fully and fairly acted upon if necessary,” he said in his statement.
The Republican accusations that Mr. Sessions spoke of on Tuesday were laid out in a memo by House Intelligence Committee staffers that was rebutted by the panel’s Democrats. “As long as I am the attorney general,” he added, “I will continue to discharge my duties with integrity and honor, and this department will continue to do its work in a fair and impartial manner according to the law and Constitution.”
Mr. Sessions first addressed the Justice Department’s response to the Republican memo on Feb. 2, when the document was released. Mr. Sessions’s response, polite but pointed, was all the more striking because he had largely kept quiet after previous attacks by the president. Mr. Trump has never forgiven Mr. Sessions for recusing himself from the Russia investigation, a decision that helped lead to the appointment of Mr. Mueller. Mr. Trump has publicly called Mr. Sessions “weak” and said he would not have appointed him had he known Mr. Sessions would step aside.
“Congress has made inquiries concerning an issue of great importance for the country and concerns have been raised about the Department’s performance. I have great confidence in the men and women of this Department. But no Department is perfect,” Mr. Sessions said in the statement. “Accordingly, I will forward to appropriate D.O.J. components all information I receive from Congress regarding this. I am determined that we will fully and fairly ascertain the truth.” His latest eruption was prompted by Mr. Sessions’s comment on Tuesday that if a FISA surveillance warrant was wrongfully obtained, the matter would be “investigated” by the department’s inspector general. His comment was interpreted as confirmation that the inspector general had opened a second official inquiry on top of the Comey review.
In his tweet on Wednesday, Mr. Trump also slammed the department’s inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, for taking so long to conclude his investigation into the former F.B.I. director’s handling of the bureau’s inquiry of Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was secretary of state. That inspector general investigation is expected to conclude this year with some harsh findings about senior Justice Department and F.B.I. officials in the Obama administration. But Mr. Sessions only meant to reiterate what he said after a memo drafted by House Republicans was released alleging abuse of the FISA process. At the time, Mr. Sessions said he would “forward to appropriate D.O.J. components all information I receive from Congress regarding this.”
In his tweet, Mr. Trump appeared to question Mr. Horowitz’s objectivity because he was appointed by former President Barack Obama. The nuance was lost on Mr. Trump, who among other things did not seem to understand that an attorney general cannot order an inspector general to investigate anything, only refer information.
“Isn’t the I.G. an Obama guy?” Mr. Trump said. “The president’s tweet reveals that he really doesn’t understand how the government works and how the Justice Department works,” said Michael Bromwich, a former department inspector general.
Representative Trey Gowdy, a Republican from South Carolina and chairman of the House Oversight Committee, defended Mr. Horowitz on Wednesday and said he has been “fair, fact centric, and appropriately confidential with his work.” He added that the inspector general’s office has a reputation for professionalism. “It’s incredibly demoralizing to have the chief executive of the government not only not understand and appreciate what you do, but attack what you do on a constant basis,” Mr. Bromwich said.
“I have complete confidence in him and hope he is given the time, the resources and the independence to complete his work,” Mr. Gowdy said. Inspectors general at cabinet agencies are kept separate to preserve their independence. Paul Light, a New York University professor and specialist on the offices, recalled that President Ronald Reagan fired all of the inspectors general but was forced by Congress to rehire some of them. “They have protections in statutes against arbitrary dismissal,” he said.
Senator Chuck Grassley, a Republican from Iowa and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, also expressed his support for Mr. Horowitz. Mr. Grassley said the Senate swiftly approved Mr. Horowitz’s appointment, a sign of support from both Republicans and Democrats. After Mr. Trump’s tweet, Mr. Horowitz, the inspector general, received support from Republicans, including Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee that confirmed him.
“I have complete confidence in him and hope he is given the time, the resources and the independence to complete his work,” said Representative Trey Gowdy, Republican of South Carolina and the chairman of the House Oversight Committee.
Several Republicans expressed dismay at the president’s continued campaign against Mr. Sessions. “It’s kind of mind-boggling that he would call out his own attorney general,” former Representative Jason Chaffetz of Utah said on Fox News.
Representative Peter T. King of New York, also on Fox, expressed sympathy with Mr. Trump’s desire for a second investigation run by Mr. Sessions, but added that the president should not berate him. “Jeff Sessions is loyal to the president and he’s one of the first to support him, and he’s often in very difficult positions and I think he’s trying to reconcile as best as he can,” he said.
Michael W. McConnell, a former appellate judge now at Stanford Law School, said a president has every right to direct his attorney general.
“What raises eyebrows is the form and tone of the tweet, which appears to be a commentary on the attorney general’s decisions rather than an exercise of presidential supervisory authority,” he said. “Mr. Trump is the president. If he wants something done differently, he should order that it be done differently, with serious reflection, through proper channels and in the proper form.”
Jamil Jaffer, a law professor at George Mason University and former associate White House counsel under President George W. Bush, said social media was not the best way to direct action by an attorney general. “The president has a lot of tools that are a lot more effective than putting the A.G. on blast on Twitter,” he said.
But Mr. Trump got support from other quarters. Representative Lee Zeldin of New York and a dozen other Republicans sent a letter to Mr. Sessions on Wednesday urging him to appoint a special counsel to investigate the handling of Mrs. Clinton’s case and the FISA warrant targeting Mr. Page.
The Rev. Jerry Falwell Jr., the president of Liberty University, suggested that Mr. Sessions had never really supported Mr. Trump in the first place.
“@USAGSessions must be part of the Bush/Romney/McCain Republican Establishment,” he wrote on Twitter. “He probably supported @realDonaldTrump early in campaign to hide who he really is. Or he could just be a coward.”