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Trump, Familiar With ‘Flipping’ Under Legal Pressure, Says It ‘Almost Ought to Be Illegal’
Jeff Sessions Rejects Trump’s Latest Attack, Says Justice Dept. Will Not Be Influenced by Politics
(about 1 hour later)
WASHINGTON — President Trump said he was not surprised that his onetime lawyer and fixer cooperated with prosecutors in exchange for a lesser punishment — “It’s called ‘flipping,’ and it almost ought to be illegal,” he said.
WASHINGTON — Jeff Sessions, the attorney general, pushed back against President Trump’s recent attack on him — namely that Mr. Sessions never took control of the Justice Department — and said on Thursday that as long as he is the attorney general, he would not be influenced by politics.
Mr. Trump said the years in prison facing his longtime attorney, Michael D. Cohen, for bank fraud were too daunting, and “in all fairness to him, most people are going to do that.”
“While I am attorney general, the actions of the Department of Justice will not be improperly influenced by political considerations,” Mr. Sessions said in a rare public statement released Thursday afternoon.
“I know all about flipping. For 30, 40 years I have been watching flippers,” Mr. Trump said on Wednesday during an interview with “Fox & Friends” that aired on Thursday.
The president has long expressed regret over naming Mr. Sessions to be attorney general because he suggested Mr. Sessions failed to protect him by recusing himself from the government’s continuing investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 elections and any possible coordination with members of Mr. Trump’s campaign.
Then Mr. Trump referred to Mr. Cohen’s case. “But if you can say something bad about Donald Trump and you will go down to two years or three years, which is the deal he made, in all fairness to him, most people are going to do that. And I have seen it many times. I have had many friends involved in this stuff.”
“I put in an attorney general that never took control of the Justice Department,” Mr. Trump said in an interview with “Fox & Friends” recorded on Wednesday and aired on Thursday morning. “Jeff Sessions never took control of the Justice Department and it’s a sort of an incredible thing.”
The president’s professed experience with “flippers” illustrates his views on law and loyalty and helps to explain his opposing reactions to two men who are guilty of defrauding the federal government.
He later asked: “What kind of man is this.”
The president’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, who was just convicted of tax and bank fraud was “brave,” because he chose to go to trial instead of cooperating with the government. And Mr. Cohen, who was once so loyal to the president that he said he would take a bullet for him, was a bad lawyer who broke under pressure, in Mr. Trump’s view.
Mr. Sessions appeared to answer that question: “I demand the highest standards, and where they are not met, I take action,” he said in the statement.
“It’s called flipping, and it almost ought to be illegal,” Mr. Trump said of Mr. Cohen’s deal with the government. And the campaign finance crimes Mr. Cohen pleaded guilty to are “tiny ones,” or “not even crimes,” according to Mr. Trump.
It was the latest swipe at the American justice system, which the president has previously disparaged and scolded for being unfair, most notably in continuing the investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election and whether Moscow was coordinating with any Trump campaign aides.
In the predawn hours on Thursday, the president tweeted, “NO COLLUSION — RIGGED WITCH HUNT!”
Flipping, or striking a plea bargain with prosecutors, is one of the most commonly used tactic in the federal justice system.
Matt Axelrod, a former federal prosecutor who is currently practicing as a white collar defense attorney at Linklaters Law Firm, called it a “fundamental building block” of federal prosecutions.
“Prosecutors use cooperators to work their way up the organizational hierarchy,” Mr. Axelrod said. “Without cooperators, prosecutors are often left with a case against just the worker bees, not the bosses.”
Or, as Mr. Trump said, “They flip on whoever the next highest one is, or as high as you can go.”
The president said he often puts quotation marks around the word “justice” when he is talking about the department because, in his view, the department is not pursuing the real crimes.
And as for the leader of the Justice Department, Jeff Sessions: “What kind of man is this,” Mr. Trump asked in his Fox interview. The president has long expressed regret over naming Mr. Sessions to the post because he did protect the president from the Russia inquiry when he recused himself from overseeing the investigation.
Mr. Trump said the only reason he gave Mr. Sessions the job is because he was an early supporter of his and worked on his presidential campaign. “I felt loyalty,” Mr. Trump said.
