Trump Says He Would Never Have Nominated Jeff Sessions if He Knew He Was Going to Recuse on Russia

‘Very Unfair to the President’ Trump Cries

In a 50-minute interview with The New York Times Wednesday President Donald Trump revealed he never would have nominated  then-Senator Jeff Sessions to become Attorney General if he had known the Alabama lawyer was going to recuse himself on Russia. Trump also drew a “red line” on Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller, warning him to not investigate his personal finances, and refusing to say he would not fire him in the future.

Trump also claimed that Mueller is running an operation rife with conflicts of interest.

“Sessions should have never recused himself, and if he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me before he took the job and I would have picked somebody else,” Trump told the Times. 

“Jeff Sessions takes the job, gets into the job, recuses himself, which frankly I think is very unfair to the president,” he added. “How do you take a job and then recuse yourself? If he would have recused himself before the job, I would have said, ‘Thanks, Jeff, but I’m not going to take you.’ It’s extremely unfair — and that’s a mild word — to the president.”

The President’s remarks suggest he is under the faulty impression the Attorney General, who heads the Department of Justice and is viewed as the nation’s chief law enforcement officer, is his personal attorney on retention to defend and protect the president, not the Constitution, the nation, and its citizens.

Another stunning revelation from the Times interview is the President effectively threatened the Special Counsel, Robert Mueller.

Mr. Trump said Mr. Mueller was running an office rife with conflicts of interest and warned investigators against delving into matters too far afield from Russia. Mr. Trump never said he would order the Justice Department to fire Mr. Mueller, nor would he outline circumstances under which he might do so. But he left open the possibility as he expressed deep grievance over an investigation that has taken a political toll in the six months since he took office.

Asked if Mr. Mueller’s investigation would cross a red line if it expanded to look at his family’s finances beyond any relationship to Russia, Mr. Trump said, “I would say yes.” He would not say what he would do about it. “I think that’s a violation. Look, this is about Russia.”

The New York Times also reports President Trump believes the private conversation Jim Comey had with him, in which the then-FBI Director shared the now-public Russian dossier that reveals many compromising and embarrassing details about Trump’s personal actions, was an attempt by Comey to gain “leverage” against him.

Trump also insisted, despite his earlier remarks, that he is not under investigation.

“I don’t think we’re under investigation,” he said. “I’m not under investigation. For what? I didn’t do anything wrong.”

The President also discussed his eldest son’s now infamous meeting with a Russian attorney and other Russians last year, insisting he was unaware of the meeting until recently. He attempted to debunk the purpose of the meeting, which was made very clear in the emails his son released: getting “dirt” on Hillary Clinton.

“There wasn’t much I could say about Hillary Clinton that was worse than what I was already saying,” Trump told the Times. “Unless somebody said that she shot somebody in the back, there wasn’t much I could add to my repertoire.”

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