Rod Rosenstein and Jeff Sessions are plotting something together tonight
The day began with Donald Trump publicly attacking his own Attorney General Jeff Sessions via Twitter. The day continued with the media reporting that Special Counsel Robert Mueller is investigating whether Trump committed obstruction of justice with his previous public attacks on Sessions. Now the day is ending with Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein coming tighter to plot… well, something.
Sessions, Rosenstein, and Solicitor General Noel Francisco, the top three ranking people in the Department of Justice respectively, all went out to dinner tonight and promptly got photographed by a reporter (link). The three of them had to have known they’d be seen at the restaurant, so this wasn’t intended to be some hush-hush secret meeting. Instead it feels more like a show of solidarity against Trump on the part of the entire DOJ hierarchy. But in light of what was reported about Trump and Sessions earlier today, there has to be more to this meeting.
Just before the dinner took place, the Washington Post reported that Mueller is investigating Trump over his treatment of Sessions (link). The question at hand is whether Trump was trying to badger Sessions into resigning so Trump could then replace him with someone who would sabotage the Trump-Russia investigation, which could be felony obstruction. In fact, the article reads a lot like Sessions himself is Mueller’s star witness on this. If so, that would imply that Sessions has secretly cut a plea deal.
So now, on a day in which we’ve learned that Donald Trump’s actions toward Jeff Sessions may result in criminal charges against Trump, and it appears that Sessions may have flipped on Trump, suddenly we’ve got Sessions and his No. 2 and No. 3 all sitting down to dinner together to plot… something. Again, they clearly weren’t afraid to be seen in public while they were doing this. We don’t know what they’re plotting here, but it’s not nothing. Stay tuned.
