Attorney General Jeff Sessions is between a rock and a hard place in regard to the investigation of possible connections between the Trump campaign and Russia’s interference with the 2016 election. He is not the first to find himself in that position.
With the results of the Russia investigation coming up, and after months of being publicly berated, prodded and pressured by Donald Trump, Attorney General Jeff Sessions should keep three names in mind: Richardson, Ruckelshaus and Cox.
If those names are unfamiliar, a little history will help. Attorney General Elliot Richardson, Deputy Attorney General Bill Ruckelshaus and Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox were the heroes of what is called the “Saturday Night Massacre” during the Watergate scandal nearly 35 years ago.
It began in 1972 when police discovered five men trying to bug the office of the Democratic National Committee in Washington D.C.’s Watergate Hotel. Richard Nixon was president. With the superb journalism of the Washington Post and in dramatic Senate hearings (they made the O.J. Simpson trial look like a bad soap opera), investigators gradually traced the crime all the way back to the Oval Office.
Richardson was Nixon’s choice to head the Justice Department. The Senate made clear it would not confirm him, however, unless he appointed a special prosecutor to investigate the Watergate case. Richardson enlisted law professor Archibald Cox.
It came out during the investigation that Nixon had tape recorded his conversations in the Oval Office. In November 1973, Cox pressed for copies of the tapes. Nixon refused to provide them and ordered Richardson to fire Cox. Richardson and Ruckelshaus, who was acting director of the FBI as well as Deputy Attorney General, stunned everyone by refusing the president’s order and resigning. Nixon appointed another Attorney General who fired Cox and shut down the investigation.
That was the “Saturday night massacre”. Nixon’s refusal to turn over the tapes resulted in charge of obstruction of justice, the first of three articles of impeachment approved by the House of Representatives. In August 1974, Nixon resigned to avoid a trial by the U.S. Senate. Richardson and Ruckelshaus made history for their integrity and dedication to public service.
There are some obvious parallels between those events and the relationship between Donald Trump, Jeff Sessions and Robert Mueller, who is investigating possible connections between Trump’s presidential campaign and Russian interference in the 2016 election. To be clear, there are no indications as yet that Mueller’s investigation will conclude that Trump has done anything wrong. But the media has documented a long list of tweets and sworn Senate testimony indicating that Trump may have crossed the line.
After controversy over his Senate testimony about the Russia connection, Sessions made the principled decision to recuse himself from the investigation. Trump was furious that Sessions had given up the authority to watch his back, presumably including the ability to reign in the FBI and to fire the special counsel.
Instead, Trump has used Twitter and off-handed public comments to prod Sessions and the FBI into launching diversionary investigations into Democrats and especially Hillary Clinton. Trump has tried to manipulate Sessions with statements like “A lot of people are disappointed in the Justice Department, including me”; “Everybody is asking why the Justice Department (and FBI) isn't looking into all of the dishonesty going on with Crooked Hillary & the Dems"; and "People are angry. At some point the Justice Department, and the FBI, must do what is right and proper. The American public deserves it!" He has accused the FBI of “disgraceful” conduct, “tainted” performance, and a reputation in “tatters”. He even accused the Justice Department of conducting a “deep state” conspiracy against him.
Meantime, some Republicans in Congress have pressured Mueller to resign. Others have called for new investigations into Clinton’s dealings with donors to the Clinton Foundation and her use of a private email server while she was Secretary of State. Two Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee have called for an FBI investigation into a former British Intelligence Officer who was hired to investigate Trump, first by a conservative media organization then by the Clinton campaign. The House Intelligence Committee, which is supposed to be conducting its own investigation into possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia, reportedly has reached an impasse with Republicans saying they’ve found nothing and Democrats saying the investigation isn’t finished. Right-wing media including Fox News have provided a backdrop with a salvo of adjectives to discredit the Russia investigation, calling it “illegitimate” and “corrupt” and comparing the FBI to the KGB.
In short, the attempts to use the Justice Department as a political weapon and to launch investigations to divert attention from other investigations have gotten out of hand.
It is important for the American people to understand that although the Department of Justice is part of the Trump Administration, Sessions’ first allegiance must be to the law and to the department’s core mission of “fairness and uncompressing institutional integrity”. The Department’s extensive powers, ranging from enforcing federal law and crime-fighting to protecting Americans from terrorism, must be free of manipulation and meddling by the White House, Congress or any other political power.
It would be in the best interest of the country if Trump and congressional Republicans allowed Mueller to finish his probe unimpeded and without distraction. That is not Trump, however. He is impulsive, hard to control, vindictive and litigious, well-known for using lawsuits, the courts and now twitter to intimidate and make life miserable for his opponents.
In his latest public appearances with Trump, Sessions has looked subdued. But as events unfold, he may face an integrity test not unlike the one that Richardson and Ruckelshaus passed so admirably in 1973. If Sessions fails to defend the independence of the Justice Department, or if he is fired, the president may find he has a revolt on his hands at Justice, where there is a history of push-back from Attorneys General and career prosecutors when they are forced to make a choice between serving a president and serving the law.