Jeff Sessions is in deeper legal trouble than we thought
Back in 1986, current Attorney General Jeff Sessions was denied a judgeship by the United States Senate due to allegations of systematic racism. Three decades later, again before the Senate, Sessions perjured himself during his confirmation to become the 84th Attorney General when he denied having any contact with the Russians as a member of Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Less than two months later, Sessions recused himself from the Department of Justice’s investigation into Trump-Russia treason.
With Sessions no longer in charge of the investigation, the responsibility to investigate Trump’s malfeasance fell to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. It has been reported on multiple occasions, and from numerous media outlets, that Trump had pressured Sessions to reverse his recusal, in order to retake control of the investigation. Despite Trump’s public and private demands, Sessions has refused oblige him.
There are many possible reasons for this. First, Sessions may have realized, once Rosenstein appointed Robert Mueller as Special Counsel, that there was nothing he could do to prevent his misdeeds from becoming public, and so he secretly agreed to cooperate with Mueller’s investigation. Another possibility is that Sessions understands that his time as Attorney General is waning, and he would prefer to use his remaining time to further push his racist agenda before he is taken down for assisting in treason. Still another possibility is that he needs to keep his power as the chief law enforcement official in America in order to protect himself from other previous crimes.
While all of those reasons are plausible, a new report may lead some to believe the latter is the most likely. A recent bribery trial has revealed Sessions’ role in blocking EPA legislative actions that targeted one of his top donors. While listed as a possible witness, Sessions never testified in a trial last month in Alabama, which resulted in guilty verdicts against David Roberson and Joel Gilbert. Roberson, vice president of Drummond Coal, and Gilbert, a partner in Birmingham-based law firm Balch & Bingham, were found guilty of paying off an Alabama lawmaker to end a federal environmental cleanup that could have cost the defendants millions of dollars.
During Jeff Sessions’ career as a Senator, the companies of Balch and Drummond were his second and third biggest donors, respectively. During his Attorney General confirmation hearing, Sessions was asked how he would deal with such an investigation into his donors, and he stated that he would request advice from Justice Department officials. It appears that Sessions either did not ask for such assistance in this case, or he completely ignored their advice. Suffice it to say, America should be glad that Rosenstein is making the important decisions in Mueller’s investigation and not Sessions.
I’m a ceramic engineer living in Central New York, avid sports fan but find myself more interested in politics lately.