Jeff Sessions hires attorney whose connections suggest he’s trying to cut a deal against Donald Trump

| 7:10 pm EDT June 20, 2017
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Attorney General Jeff Sessions has hired an attorney of his own, a sign of just how serious Donald Trump’s Russia scandal has become, and how many people it now threatens to take down. This makes Sessions the eleventh person in the Trump administration who is known to have hired an attorney in the scandal. But what stands out here is whom Sessions hired, and how he’s connected to the investigation itself.

Jeff Sessions has hired Charles Cooper as his attorney. But Cooper’s former colleague is Rachel Brand, who currently serves as the number three at the Department of Justice (link). With Sessions already having recused himself from the DOJ’s Trump-Russia investigation, and with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in danger of having to do the same, it would leave Brand in charge of the investigation.

Although Brand and Cooper no longer work together, it would be difficult to imagine them wanting to be on opposite sides of the same investigation, particularly one this crucial and nation-defining. So it’s difficult to imagine that Cooper would be willing to represent Jeff Sessions in this matter, unless Sessions is planning to cooperate with the investigation – in which case it would be very easy to understand why Cooper has taken him on as a client.

But Jeff Sessions is facing multiple felonies (lying under oath, lying on his security clearance forms, plus whatever crimes he may have been plotting with the Russian Ambassador during the meetings he lied about). And the only way for him to gain himself any legal leniency for himself would be to flip on Donald Trump. So while there are different ways to interpret any given hiring, Sessions’ decision to hire Charles Cooper of all people – and Cooper’s willingness to take him on as a client – suggest that Sessions is aiming to cut a deal against Trump.