February 28, 2018

Trump Blasts Jeff Sessions for Not Doing More to Investigate Dubious Allegations of FBI Misconduct

Here we go again.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions leaves a press conference on opioid drug policy at the Justice Department on Tuesday.Shen Ting/Xinhua via ZUMA Wire

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

President Donald Trump upped his criticism of Jeff Sessions on Wednesday, blasting his attorney general on Twitter for not doing enough to investigate alleged FBI malfeasance. His criticism comes after Sessions announced Tuesday that the Justice Department’s inspector general would investigate Republican allegations of the abuse of secret surveillance warrants, including the one used to target former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. The FBI has stated that its surveillance of Page was proper, and Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee released a memo last week debunking a Republican memo that is the source of the  misconduct allegations.

The accusation of FBI wrongdoing are central to Republican attacks on Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation, but that hasn’t stopped him from injecting himself repeatedly into matters he vowed to stay out of. His announcement of the inspector general’s investigation not only lends credence to dubious claims of misconduct but once again puts him in the middle of matters he is supposed to be recused from. 

To Trump, however, what his attorney general is doing is not enough. The president has repeatedly expressed frustration with Sessions for failing to protect him from the Russia probe, an expectation that cuts against the traditional emphasis on preserving an independent Justice Department and FBI. His Twitter outburst on Wednesday was also likely fueled by watching Fox News, which covered Sessions’ announcement of the inspector general investigation Tuesday evening and this morning on Fox and Friends.

Sessions responded to Trump’s tweet Wednesday afternoon, defending his conduct and the independence of the Justice Department.

This post has been updated to include Sessions’ response.

WE'LL BE BLUNT.

We have a considerable $390,000 gap in our online fundraising budget that we have to close by June 30. There is no wiggle room, we've already cut everything we can, and we urgently need more readers to pitch in—especially from this specific blurb you're reading right now.

We'll also be quite transparent and level-headed with you about this.

In "News Never Pays," our fearless CEO, Monika Bauerlein, connects the dots on several concerning media trends that, taken together, expose the fallacy behind the tragic state of journalism right now: That the marketplace will take care of providing the free and independent press citizens in a democracy need, and the Next New Thing to invest millions in will fix the problem. Bottom line: Journalism that serves the people needs the support of the people. That's the Next New Thing.

And it's what MoJo and our community of readers have been doing for 47 years now.

But staying afloat is harder than ever.

In "This Is Not a Crisis. It's The New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, why this moment is particularly urgent, and how we can best communicate that without screaming OMG PLEASE HELP over and over. We also touch on our history and how our nonprofit model makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there: Letting us go deep, focus on underreported beats, and bring unique perspectives to the day's news.

You're here for reporting like that, not fundraising, but one cannot exist without the other, and it's vitally important that we hit our intimidating $390,000 number in online donations by June 30.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. It's going to be a nail-biter, and we really need to see donations from this specific ask coming in strong if we're going to get there.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT.

We have a considerable $390,000 gap in our online fundraising budget that we have to close by June 30. There is no wiggle room, we've already cut everything we can, and we urgently need more readers to pitch in—especially from this specific blurb you're reading right now.

We'll also be quite transparent and level-headed with you about this.

In "News Never Pays," our fearless CEO, Monika Bauerlein, connects the dots on several concerning media trends that, taken together, expose the fallacy behind the tragic state of journalism right now: That the marketplace will take care of providing the free and independent press citizens in a democracy need, and the Next New Thing to invest millions in will fix the problem. Bottom line: Journalism that serves the people needs the support of the people. That's the Next New Thing.

And it's what MoJo and our community of readers have been doing for 47 years now.

But staying afloat is harder than ever.

In "This Is Not a Crisis. It's The New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, why this moment is particularly urgent, and how we can best communicate that without screaming OMG PLEASE HELP over and over. We also touch on our history and how our nonprofit model makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there: Letting us go deep, focus on underreported beats, and bring unique perspectives to the day's news.

You're here for reporting like that, not fundraising, but one cannot exist without the other, and it's vitally important that we hit our intimidating $390,000 number in online donations by June 30.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. It's going to be a nail-biter, and we really need to see donations from this specific ask coming in strong if we're going to get there.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate