Trump: Sessions’ recusal on Russia probe was ‘unfair’
President says Comey tried to use dossier in effort to keep his job.
President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he never would have appointed Attorney General Jeff Sessions had he known Sessions would recuse himself from overseeing the Russia investigation that has dogged his presidency, calling the decision “very unfair to the president.”
In a remarkable public break with one of his earliest political supporters, Trump complained that Sessions’ 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,” Trump said.
In a wide-ranging interview with The New York Times, the president also accused James Comey, the FBI director he fired in May, of trying to leverage a dossier of compromising material to keep his job. Trump criticized both the acting FBI director who has been filling in since Comey’s dismissal and the deputy attorney general who recommended it. And he took on Robert Mueller, the special counsel now leading the investigation into Russian meddling in last year’s election.
Trump said Mueller was running an office rife with conflicts of interest and warned investigators against delving into matters too far afield from Russia. Trump
never said he would order the Justice Department to fire 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 Mueller’s investigation would cross a red line if it expanded to look at his family’s finances beyond any relationship to Russia, 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.”
While the interview touched on an array of issues, including health care, foreign affairs and politics, the investigation dominated the conversation. He said that as far as he knew, he was not under investigation himself, despite reports that Mueller is looking at whether the president obstructed jus- tice by firing Comey.
“I don’t think we’re under investigation,” he said. “I’m not under investigation. For what? I didn’t do anything wrong.”
Describing a newly disclosed informal conversa- tion he had with President Vladimir Putin of Russia during a dinner of world leaders in Germany earlier this month, Trump said they talked for about 15 minutes, mostly about “pleasantries.” But Trump did say that they talked “about adoptions.” Putin banned American adoptions of Russian chil- dren in 2012 after the U.S. enacted sanctions on Russians accused of human rights abuses, an issue that remains a sore point in rela- tions with Moscow.
Trump a cknowledged that it was “interesting” that adoptions came up since his son, Donald Trump Jr., said that was the topic of a meet- ing he had with several Russians with ties to the Kremlin during last year’s campaign. Even though emails show that the session had been set up to pass along incriminating information about Hillary Clinton, the president said he did not need such material from Russia about Mrs. Clinton last year because he already had more than enough.
The interview came as the White House was trying to move beyond the Russia story and regain momen- tum following the collapse of health care legislation in the Senate. Relaxed and engaged, the president sat at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office, with only one aide, Hope Hicks, sitting in on the interview. The session was sandwiched between a White House lunch with Republican senators and an event promoting “Made in America” week.
Over the course of 50 minutes, the often-fiery Trump demonstrated his more amiable side, joking about holding hands with the president of France and musing about having a military parade down a main avenue in Washington. He took satisfaction that unemployment has fallen and stock markets have risen to record highs on his watch.
But Trump left little doubt during the interview that the Russia investigation remained a sore point. His pique at Sessions, in particular, seemed fresh even months after the attorney general’s recusal. Sessions was the first senator to endorse Trump’s candidacy and was rewarded with a key Cabinet slot, but has been more distant from the president lately.
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