PrairiePundit

NY Times: Why Is Trump Mad at Sessions? A Tweet Provides the Answer President Trump acknowledged perhaps as explicitly as ever that he was angry at Attorney General Jeff Sessions for not stopping the Russia inquiry. To critics, it is all but an admission of guilt. It is patently absurd to call this an admission of guilt.  It is not surprising that any President would be unhappy that an investigation would be handled by a group of angry political opponents who want revenge for losing an election.  Trump is faced with irrational hatred because he won, and not because he engaged in any collusion with Russians or tried to "obstruct justice" when no crime was committed in the first place.  There are plenty of lawyers Trump could have selected who would not have had to recuse themselves and Sessions should have warned him of that before he took the job.

Power Line: The New York Times  reports that, at a meeting with Attorney General Sessions in March, President Trump berated Sessions for recusing himself from the Russia investigation and told him he should reverse this decision. Sessions refused. The Times also reports that Robert Mueller’s team is investigating this incident, along with Trump’s “public and private attacks on Mr. Sessions and efforts to get him to resign.” This “suggests that [Mueller’s] obstruction [of justice] investigation is broader than it is widely understood to be — encompassing not only the president’s interactions with and firing of the former F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, but also his relationship with Mr. Sessions.” I’ll say. If, true, the Times’ report also suggests (maybe “confirms” is the better word) that Mueller’s investigation is out of control. Earlier today,  Scott  put the matter this way: “The Mueller team apparently thinks that Trump can be guilty of a crime for the exer...

NY Times: Trump Told Sessions to Reverse Recusal on Russia Inquiry Attorney General Jeff Sessions is a key witness in the investigation into whether President Trump tried to obstruct the Russia inquiry itself. In the time since the investigation started virtually all the evidence produced has shown there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians.  None.  Yet the media still acts like the discredited investigation is still of some importance.  Reversing Sessions recusal at this point would make no difference in that investigation.  There would still not be a crime to obstruct an investigation of. I think it has gotten to the point where those who hate Trump and his policies are just looking for another excuse for their coup attempt.

Washington Times: Attorney General Jeff Sessions compared California’s new sanctuary city laws to attempts by slave-holding southern states to nullify federal laws, and blasted California officials Wednesday for attempting to force a “radical open borders agenda” on the rest of the country. Speaking to California police and sheriffs, Mr. Sessions defended his decision to file a lawsuit against California this week seeking to block three state laws he says are thwarting federal agents’ ability to stop illegal immigration. And he took specific aim at Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, saying she actively aided illegal immigrants in escaping arrest last month by warning them of an impending sweep by federal deportation officers. “Here’s my message to Mayor Schaaf: How dare you,” the attorney general said. “How dare you needlessly endanger the lives of law enforcement to promote a radical open borders agenda.” Ms. Schaaf has defended her actions, saying she was trying to give illegal im...

Fox News: More than 50,000 texts exchanged between FBI officials Strzok and Page, Sessions says I am pretty sure I have not had that many text messages in total in my lifetime.  I suspect there are a few thousand more in the missing texts messages.  There have been conflicting stories on whether the IG had access to the missing messages.  AG Sessions says they will get to the bottom of the missing messages.  I think they should start by taking the phones of Strzok and Page and see if they may have been saved on the device.  They should also seize their private phones to see if they had "secret society" messages about their attempt to stop Trump on there too. The FBI should also contact the cell phone provider to see if they retained copies of the text messages.

NY Times: Trump Administration Takes Step That Could Threaten Marijuana Legalization Movement Federal prosecutors will be given discretion to more aggressively enforce marijuana laws, threatening to undermine the legalization movement at the state level. I have never used marijuana and have no interest in using it.  Those who want to legalize it should stop whining about enforcinment of current law and seek to change it if they think they can muster support for doing so. I have always found life to be pleasant enough without resorting to dope or drugs.  For those who are not so lucky, I feel sorry for them.  I think they would be better off living in the real world. 

Fox News: Reps. Jordan and Gaetz: Special counsel needed as questions mount on Clinton, Comey, Russian Dossier and more They ask a series of pointed questions that lead them to conclude that a special counsel is warranted.  In effect, they are telling Sessions to either appoint a special counsel or resign so that someone else can make the appointment.  They are also seeking an investigation of the Uranium One deal approved in 2010.

NY Times: Investigations on Leaks Triple Under Trump, Sessions Says Jeff Sessions, the attorney general, vowed to bring criminal charges against those found to have given classified information to the news media. The announcement came days after President Trump accused Mr. Sessions of being weak on the issue. Session said that four people had been charged with leaking but did not identify them. ... Jeff Sessions said the suspects were accused of divulging classified material or concealed contacts with foreign intelligence officers. America's top prosecutor said the administration has tripled the number of active leak probes since January. ... It will be interesting to see if this halts the flow of information within the intelligence community to media outlets in the service of a coup attempt against the President.

Washington Post: Trump team weighs options for replacing Sessions Some of President Trump’s confidants are floating prospects who could take Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s place were he to resign or be fired, according to people familiar with the talks. It comes as Trump continued to vent his frustration with Sessions. Some of his disappointment is beyond Sessions control.  Perhaps Sessions should have advised the President before he accepted the appointment that he would have to recuse himself.  I suspect both men were surprised that the bogus Russian collusion narrative by the Democrats went as far as it did. While trump was willing to let Clinton off the hook for her mishandling of classified information and the appearance of corruption, the Democrats were not as magnanimous in defeat as he was in victory. Trump would like to see some push back against the Democrats and he now thinks it was a mistake not to pursue an investigation of Clinton, but the way to ha...

Power Line: The Washington Post claims that Attorney General Sessions’ statements about what he discussed with the Russian ambassador are at odds with reports by the ambassador to his government about what he and Sessions discussed. The Post relies on, you guessed it, “current and former U.S. officials.” But the Post fails to describe a contradiction between what Sessions has said and what the Russian ambassador supposedly reported. Here are the only statements by Sessions cited by the Post and its sources as problematic: I never had meetings with Russian operatives or Russian intermediaries about the Trump campaign. I don’t recall any discussion of the campaign in any significant way. I never met with or had any conversation with any Russians or foreign officials concerning any type of interference with any campaign or election in the United States. Here is the Post’s description of what the Russian ambassador told the government: A former official said that the intell...

Cotton, along with Rubio have been asking the most clear thinking questions in this ridiculous Russian conspiracy theory the Democrats have come up with to justify their coup attempt against the President. Here is what Rubio said after the hearing: ... Sen. Rubio, too, summed things up neatly in an interview after the hearing . “I challenge you to find a single Senator who says they have evidence of collusion,” he said to reporters. There were no takers. ... I suspect that much of the animosity toward AG Sessions by the Democrats on the panel was their abject failure to find a scintilla of evidence to support their conspiracy theory. BTW, Sen. Kamala Harris of California was at it again doing what some trial lawyers call "mad dogging" the witness by asking belligerent questions in a rapid fire "dialog" that leaves no time for the witness to answer.  She has been admonished for this unprofessional conduct before but can't seem to contain her hostilit...

NY Times: Jeff Sessions Dismisses Hawaii as ‘an Island in the Pacific’ The attorney general’s comments, related to a federal judge’s ruling that blocked the Trump administration’s latest travel ban, drew criticism from lawmakers. There are a lot of people who think the judge made a bad decision for partisan reasons.  What Sessions said is pretty mild compared to some of the things Obama said about decisions he disagreed with.

NY Times: Sessions Says Guantánamo Is a ‘Very Fine Place’ for New Suspects Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he would advise President Trump to send new detainees to the wartime prison rather than bring them to civilian courts for prosecution. I think the lawfare approach to dealing with terrorist has many flaws.  When Clinton put the African Embassy bombers on trial, it exposed some key intelligence sources and methods that ultimately made it much more difficult to prevent the 9-11 attacks.  To tie bin Laden to the attacks the government produced transcripts of bin Laden's satellite phone communications with the bombers.  He immediately quit using the satellite phone and a valuable intelligence opportunity was lost forever. Treating the detainees as illegal combatants and keeping them at Gitmo until the war is over is a more logical way to deal with them.  Obama's belief that Gitmo created more terrorist has also been shown to be invalid. ...

Hans von Spakovsky: Talk about “over the top”! The overblown rhetoric accompanying calls for Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ resignation reveals that Thursday’s brouhaha is driven by mere political grandstanding, not a real concern over unlawful behavior. There’s a reason for that: the total lack of evidence that any illegal behavior occurred. What sparked Thurday’s folderol was a Washington Post report that General Sessions, while still a U.S. senator, met with the Russian ambassador last year. Twice. To characterize the first of these encounters as a “meeting” strains the meaning of the word—to the breaking point. But to claim that he “lied” when he did not reveal these “meetings” during his Senate nomination hearing is even more far-fetched. Review the record of that hearing with an eye toward context, and you’ll find that Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) was clearly asking Sessions if he was aware of any meetings between Trump campaign staff or surrogates and Russian officials...

Erick Erickson: Do you not hear yourselves? You think Jeff Sessions is an agent of the Russian government or somehow duplicitous in sabotaging the American election? That is insane. Trump Derangement Syndrome has officially set in and is rotting the brains of Democrats inside and outside the American press corps. Jeff Sessions loyally and patriotically served his country as a United States Attorney where he prosecuted members of the KKK and desegregated Alabama schools. He then ably served in the United States Senate along side Ted Kennedy, who actually did ask the Russians to intervene in the 1984 election and the Democrats were fine with that. This is a real slur against Sessions. He was asked, during his confirmation, if he had met with the Russians about the Trump campaign. He said no. During his time on the Senate Armed Services Committee he had met with the Russians on international business. Claire McCaskill, his colleague for part of that time, denied having ever met wi...

Patterico: DEVASTATING PROOF OF MEDIA BIAS: New York Times Airbrushes Away Democrat’s Embarrassing False Claim Without A Trace Jay Caruso noted that Senator Claire McCaskill had claimed early today never to have met with a Russian ambassador.... Then undeniable documentary and photographic evidence emerged that she had . I bet she wishes she could just airbrush that initial tweet from history — like it never happened. Kinda like the New York Times did today with her claim. ... The media sticks with their narrative even when the facts do not support it.  The attacks on Sessions are ridiculous.  They have zero merit.  To suggest that he colluded with the Russians on the election is just preposterous. It appears that rather than issue a correction to her bogus claim they decided to cover it up.

Legal Insurrection: ... Talk about click bait. Like I said, the article completely disproves the headline. But publications know that most people will not read past the headline. If they do, they may not make it very far, so go ahead and bury the lede. Which is exactly what The Washington Post did four paragraphs down. Read the question again: ... The Post appears to be playing to the left's tune in a desperate attempt to overturn the election and sabotage the Trump administration.  This does not look like a good faith effort.

NY Times: Sessions Confirmed as Partisan Rancor Racks the Senate The 52-to-47 vote ended a racially charged battle over Senator Jeff Sessions’s nomination as attorney general. The debate was dominated by the Senate’s formal rebuke of Senator Elizabeth Warren. It is good for the country that the Democrats bogus charges of racism failed.  They need to stop their ridiculous name calling and start focusing on substance.  If they don't get off this policy of accusing political opponents of being racists, sexists, bigots, and homophobes they will deserve a permanent status as a minority party.  It is a shameful attack that has no basis in substance against people like Sessions. What they really do not like about him is that he will enforce the laws that they may not like but have not been able to change.

Washington Examiner: Senate Democrats on Wednesday abandoned the all-night "talk-a-thons" they staged the prior two nights to protest votes on two of President Trump's key Cabinet nominees, even though a third nominee opposed by Democrats is set to get a vote early Friday. Democratic leaders didn't offer a public explanation for the move, but it came after their all-night debate sessions Monday and Tuesday failed to move the needle on Trump's picks. On Monday, Senate Democrats said they would be up all night to protest the nomination of Betsy DeVos to be Trump's education secretary. Senators spoke all day Monday and into the evening, and worked to generate support from followers. ... They will likely seek alternative gestures in their attempt to sabotage the Trump administration.  Both of their talk-a-thon targets are infinitely better than the people they are replacing.  Their false charges against both nominees were shameful demagoguery.

NY Times: Partial Suspension Allows Scores Stuck at Airports to Stay A federal judge in Brooklyn issued an emergency stay of part of President Trump’s executive order on immigration, ruling that sending refugees and others back would cause “irreparable harm.” Lawyers for the A.C.L.U., which filed the lawsuit, said the decision affects an estimated 100 to 200 people. It is not clear why it would cause irreparable harm since they can always come back if the situation changes.  I have not found the judges reasoning for the TRO.  There will apparently be several lawsuits filed on behalf of those covered by Trump's executive order.  It unfortunate that the Trump legal team is not now in place to supervise the response to these cases because the Democrats have delayed the approval of Sen. Sessions appointment as Attorney General. DHS says the President's executive order remains in place and the judge's order has a very limited effect for...