Trump Blasts Jeff Sessions Saying Investigations Could Jeopardize Midterm Election
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- Well President Trump took to Twitter
to take yet another jab
at his Attorney General, Jeff Sessions.
His latest attack comes astwo Republican congressmen
find themselves in some legal troubles.
CBN News national security correspondent,
Erik Rosales, explains.
- President Donald Trump has accused
Attorney General Jeff Sessionsand the Justice Department
of damaging the reelection chances
of two Republican representativesby prosecuting them.
The president tweetedthe move to file charges
against the men jeopardizes "easy wins"
in the midterm elections.
But all this has sparked criticism
that the president is illegally seeking
to interfere with the justice system.
- [Narrator] The presidentthen took another shot
at Sessions in a tweet.
He said, "The Democrats,none of whom voted
"for Jeff Sessions, must love him now."
Paul Berman is a professor of law
at George Washington University.
- It is certainly crossing the line.
The president is essentiallyasking the Justice Department
to take a partisan positionthat would benefit Republicans
in an election, which is precisely not
what we want our federal lawenforcement entities to do.
- [Narrator] Last month,authorities charged
Representative Christopher Collins
with participating in aninsider trading scheme.
Later in August,Representative Duncan Hunter
and his wife were indicted
for allegedly using campaign funds
to pay for personal expenses.
Some believe a change will take place
in the attorney general'soffice after the midterms.
- As a new attorney general,supposing he lets Sessions go,
who actually takes actionand gets things to happen
on these investigationsand brings them to a close,
I think the American peoplewill be grateful for that.
- [Narrator] President Trump
has publicly criticizedSessions for his leadership
in the Justice Department
starting when Sessions recused himself
from the Russian investigationallowing it to go forward.
Now the president's viewappears to be gaining traction
on Capitol Hill.
- The bottom line is that thisrelationship is not working.
It's not good for theDepartment of Justice.
- [Narrator] In an interview last week,
Senator Graham said the immigration issue
was poorly handled.
And the zero-tolerancepolicy that split families
and created an uproarblindsided the president.
- I hope they can repair these problems,
but I don't see thathappening anytime soon.
The Department of Justice needs a voice
that people in the WhiteHouse will listen to,
and the president needs acabinet he's confident in.
- A lot of people say theyneed a strong voice out there
as we heard from PresidentTrump just last week.
He says that his AG is at least safe
until the midterm elections.
- Erik, with everything goingon between the president
and the attorney general,this is got to be demoralizing
for the department.
So what's it like?
What's the climate like inside DOJ?
- You know, I spoke to anumber of my sources over there
at the Department of Justice,
and they're frustrated right now.
They say that they don't know what more
that they can do.
They've already taken careof taking the rule of law
to a new level.
They've gone after drug offenders
in giving 'em harsher penalties.
They've supported the police department.
They're frustrated.
They say, "I don't know how much more
"that we can be able to do this stuff
"and still be able to doour job and be criticized
"on a daily and weekly basis."
- But just not thedepartment, but its leader,
it has to cripple theleadership in his ability
to lead the rest of the department.
- It certainly does.
And he says, you know,Jeff Sessions I spoke with.
He says, "The one thingthat will not happen,
"that this department will notbe influenced by politics."
And he says, plain and simple,he is gonna follow the rule
of law, but he's not gonna be influenced
by President Trump
or by politics.- Drawing the line.