Trump campaign manager calls for firing of Sessions
WASHINGTON >> President Donald Trump’s campaign manager, Brad Parscale, brashly called Tuesday for the firing of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and ending the investigation into Russian election interference led by special counsel Robert Mueller.
It was not immediately clear whether Parscale
— who shared his views in a tweet — was speaking for the president.
His tweet was sent as Michael Horowitz, the inspector general of the Justice Department, testified before Congress about the release of a report last week highly critical of several key FBI figures in the Hillary Clinton email probe, including former FBI director James Comey.
The report offered no findings regarding the ongoing investigation by Mueller into possible coordination between Russia and Trump’s campaign in the 2016 election and possible obstruction of the probe by Trump.
But Trump and his allies have seized on the report to try to undermine the validity of Mueller’s probe, arguing it showed key law enforcement officials were biased against him.
“Time to fire Sessions,” Parscale said in his tweet. “End the Mueller investigation You can’t obstruct something that was phony against you The IG report gives @realDonaldTrump the truth to end it all.”
Parscale, who served as digital director of Trump’s 2016 campaign, was named manager of Trump’s 2020 re-election effort in February.
Trump has frequently expressed anger that Sessions, a major campaign supporter, recused himself from overseeing the Russia probe. After Sessions’s recusal, Mueller was appointed by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
Last week, Trump told reporters that the inspector general’s report had “totally exonerated” him, even though it did not examine his actions.
“Take a look at the investigation,” Trump told reporters. “Take a look at how it started. The top people were horrible . ... They were plotting against my election.”