In an interview with the “failing” New York Times, Donald Trump expressed some serious frustrations with attorney general Jeff Sessions to the point of regret.
During the interview conducted Wednesday by Peter Baker, Michael Schmidt and Maggie Haberman, Trump goes on to state that he wouldn’t have appointed Sessions as the AG if he knew he was going to recuse himself from the Russia investigation. Trump also goes on to say that Sessions’ decision to recuse himself was “very unfair to the president” and that his (Sessions) recusal ultimately led to the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller.
Via the New York Times:
In a remarkable public break with one of his earliest political supporters, Mr. Trump complained that Mr. Sessions’s decision ultimately led to the appointment of a special counsel that should not have happened. “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,” Mr. Trump said.
Sessions aside, Trump also made further mention on Mueller including grievances on his part that the special counselor was “running an office rife of conflicts of interest” which is ironic considering Trump’s presidency could in part be defined has a huge conflict of interest.
As far as having any notion of firing Mueller, Trump according to the interview didn’t say he would order the Department of Justice to undertake such an act but did seem to set a “red line” in the investigation. That potential “red line” is Mueller divulging into Trump’s personal family finances which he believes would be a “violation”.
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.”
You can take a look at the entire transcript of the interview here.
