Sessions<\/p>\n
Attorney General Jeff Sessions is doing everything he can to pursue the \u201cTrump Agenda.\u201d\u00a0 From his hardline stand on immigration as one of the prime advocates for child separation at the border, to moving the Justice Department away from civil rights enforcement, to refusing to look at criminal justice reform proposed by the Congress; Sessions is using his term at the helm of Justice to radically turn America to the right.<\/p>\n
He, at the minimum, misled the Senate in his confirmation hearing about his contact with Russian officials during the Trump campaign:\u00a0 many would say he lied.\u00a0 He has consistently refused information to Congress, even to his former Republican Senate colleagues, whining out, \u201c\u2026I don\u2019t recall\u2026\u201d as only an Alabaman can say it.\u00a0He is no hero to the \u201cresistance.\u201d<\/p>\n
But he has been battered by President Trump, in interviews and with his famous tweets, excoriating Sessions for recusing himself in the Russia investigation.\u00a0 Trump has called on Sessions to resign, and stated that his appointment as Attorney General was a mistake.\u00a0 Sessions, clearly achieving a lifelong goal by serving at the helm of Justice, has steadfastly refused to quit.\u00a0 Yesterday he even responded to the President\u2019s barbs, by claiming that \u201chis\u201d Justice Department would not be \u201cpoliticized.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is the one area where Sessions has risen above the political swamp of the Trump Administration. Realizing that his Senate confirmations answers and Russian contacts compromised his ability to supervise an investigation, \u00a0he removed himself from leadership.\u00a0 He recused himself, turning over oversight of the Russia inquiry to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.\u00a0 And Rosenstein, after the firing of FBI Director James Comey, brought former Director Robert Mueller in as Special Counsel.<\/p>\n
President Trump has continually threatened to fire Sessions and put a new Attorney General in, one not recused from supervising Mueller.\u00a0 When this came up a year ago, leading Republican Senators, including Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley and leading member Lindsey Graham, warned the President not to do it.\u00a0 They stood with Sessions.<\/p>\n
Yesterday they both made it clear that their minds have changed, \u00a0both opening the door to supporting the President in finding a new Attorney General.\u00a0 And while it still doesn\u2019t have total Republican support in the Senate, with Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn still supporting Sessions, the idea firing is gaining momentum.<\/p>\n
So why would the President replace an Attorney General who is doing more than almost anyone else to advance his agenda?\u00a0 It isn\u2019t about Sessions, it\u2019s about Mueller.<\/p>\n
Logic would say, that if Trump fires Sessions, Rosenstein, second-in-command at Justice, would become the interim Attorney General until a new one is confirmed by the Senate.\u00a0 But there is an obscure provision that would allow the President to make a different interim appointment.<\/p>\n
We saw a similar action when Richard Cordray resigned as Director of the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau.\u00a0 Upon leaving, Cordray appointed his deputy, Leandra English, as acting director until the Senate confirmed a replacement.\u00a0 President Trump exercised his authority under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act to appoint a different interim director. Under that law, as long as the appointment held a \u00a0similar Senate confirmed position in the Administration then he could be moved to fill the vacancy.\u00a0 It was a \u201cmusical chairs\u201d moment: \u00a0Mick Mulvaney Director of the Office of Management and Budget was added as Director of the CFPB.<\/p>\n
So firing Sessions would not automatically lead to a Rosenstein promotion.\u00a0 It was theorized that one of the reasons that corrupt EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt stayed in office through so many scandals, was he law degree (University of Tulsa) and history as Oklahoma\u2019s Attorney General.\u00a0He looked like the perfect interim appointment.\u00a0\u00a0 However Pruitt\u2019s corruption finally couldn\u2019t be tolerated.<\/p>\n
If Trump fired Sessions now, who could the President choose to serve as interim replacement.\u00a0 He would need someone of cabinet level, with the prerequisite legal background to make the shift seem \u201cappropriate.\u201d\u00a0 There is only one.<\/p>\n
He is a graduate of Harvard Law School \u00a0(highly valued by the President,) and clerked for conservative Supreme Court Justice Alito.\u00a0 He served as US Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, a US Attorney in Florida, and a member of the National Labor Relations Board in the GW Bush administration.\u00a0He is Alexander Acosta (no relations to CNN\u2019s Jim), currently Secretary of Labor; and with the current conflict over Sessions he is on the \u201chot seat.\u201d<\/p>\n
Where he stands on any of the issues regarding the Mueller investigation, we don\u2019t know.\u00a0 Whether he would accept the job, we don\u2019t know either.\u00a0But he\u2019s in the right position, and because he is, Trump has an alternative to Sessions, and to Rosenstein.<\/p>\n
If a new, \u201cunrecused\u201d Attorney General, even an interim, was appointed, Rosenstein would no longer supervise the Mueller team.\u00a0 A new Attorney General could throttle the investigation, or fire Mueller. The President would demand it, and the Senate couldn\u2019t prevent it.<\/p>\n
A year ago it was clear that this would be a \u201cthreshold\u201d moment, when the Republican Senate, even the silenced Leader McConnell, would stand against the President.\u00a0 Today as the crisis grows, Trump still has moves, and the Republicans in the Senate are divided.\u00a0 Acosta may well refuse to jump into this fire, but the will of the President is a powerful force to resist.<\/p>\n