Jeff Sessions resigns as Attorney General

Written By: - Date published: 9:57 am, November 8th, 2018 - 27 comments
Categories: Abuse of power, Donald Trump, Politics, us politics - Tags:

In breaking news Attorney General Jeff Sessions has resigned as Attorney General at the request of Trump.

For a long time he has refused to act against Robert Mueller even though Trump wants him to.

The Atlantic provided this background:

“DISGRACEFUL.” “Weak.” “Beleaguered.” President Donald Trump has been unsparing in publicly castigating his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, in the year since Sessions recused himself from the investigation into potential collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia. Privately, Trump has berated Sessions, reportedly calling him an “idiot” and saying that hiring him was a mistake. He asked Sessions to resign following Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s appointment to lead the probe, according to The New York Times, but then wouldn’t accept his resignation. And he has been weighing firing Mueller or Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in recent days, rather than the man who, in Trump’s eyes, empowered them.

27 comments on “Jeff Sessions resigns as Attorney General ”

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  1. Ad 1
    8 November 2018 at 11:01 am

    Whitaker has a point.

    Just very lucky that Congress has a reasonable Democrat majority to support and open further investigations, as of yesterday.

    Mueller needs to finish his work and get out of there.

    • Dennis Frank 1.1
      8 November 2018 at 1:52 pm

      “Whitaker has a point.” Explain please? I may be having a senior moment, but I’ve read the Atlantic piece plus the NYT piece & can’t find any reference to Whitaker there or in what MS wrote.

      I’ve been deeply suspicious of the Mueller initiative from the start. Smells like the deep state trying to lasso the barbarian who got in the gate. Them Wall St bankers who financed Lenin are evidence of a century of top yanks working with top Russians. Just a question of whether plausible deniability works as usual. Rulers do normally delegate jobs to underlings, just like capitalists.

      Likely tweet from Trump: “Of course I didn’t say `you’re fired’! Whaddaya think I am? Crass? Jeff’s an old friend who just got a little out of his depth, so I had to reel him in. He’ll be relieved. He’s looking forward to doing a bit of gardening.”

  2. Adrian Thornton 2
    8 November 2018 at 11:17 am

    Good riddance to that warmongering, torture supporting, climate change denying, gay hating, death penalty, lock em’ up and throw away the key lovin’ prick, it would be very strange that any person with even the slightest progressive bone in their body would mourn his passing in the slightest…

    • Andre 2.1
      8 November 2018 at 11:40 am

      You really haven’t got your head around the idea that “things can be worse”, have you?

      • Adrian Thornton 2.1.1
        8 November 2018 at 1:39 pm

        No it is you who haven’t got it through your head that the centrist left liberal project is responsible for Trump…he is Obama’s legacy, the Democratic party should have taken responsibility and owned their loss to Trump, rebuilt the party and moved forward stronger and smarter, but instead they concocted a whole heap of bullshit re; Russia that a lot of useful idiots seem to have bought it hook line and sinker.

        Think about it, all the smartest most trusted intellectuals, thinkers and reporters on the Left like Pilger, Chomsky, Greenwald, Blumenthal,Finkelstein, Fisk, Taibbi etc don’t but into this Russian conspiracy, and strangely enough, are now never seen on any liberal media…doesn’t that give you at least pause for thought?

        Of course I want to see the end of Trump, but if you think that will happen through another centrist Democrat selling the same old bullshit, you might well be disappointed come 2020.

        • Andre 2.1.1.1
          8 November 2018 at 2:00 pm

          My thoughts on the likes of Pilger, Chomsky, Greenwald, Blumenthal,Finkelstein, Fisk, Taibbi are: they seem to be putting all their energies into attacking people that are trying to improve things, however slowly and imperfectly, within the constraints of the systems they have to work within. PCGBFFT aren’t putting any significant effort into opposing those in power now that are doing very real harm.

          So I’ve really lost interest in what they have to say. As far as I’m concerned, to the extent their misguided focus has any effect in the general discourse, their continual attacking of insufficiently progressive progressives is damaging the progressive movement, which secondarily boosts the arseholes. I doubt I’m the only one to come to that view.

          If there’s any chance of penetrating that fantasy you have that all a political party has to do is make a hard left turn and all will be political nirvana, take a good look at how the progressives did in competitive districts (spoiler: they mostly lost), how the moderates did in competitive districts (spoiler: a shitload better than the progressives), and how the smelliest, corruptest, most sclerotic crusty old Dems did (spoiler: they won back their seats disgustingly easily).

          • Adrian Thornton 2.1.1.1.1
            8 November 2018 at 2:25 pm

            The Socialist Bernie Sanders is the most popular politician in USA.
            The Socialist Corbyn saved UK labour from extinction.

            Your incrementalist soft progressive changes that don’t hurt the wealthy, corporations or house prices have proved to be all so much bullshit…
            What is really damaging the progressive movement is people like you who think you can have it both ways, left centrist liberalism is dead in the water you obviously can’t you see that plain fact.

            • Andre 2.1.1.1.1.1
              8 November 2018 at 3:18 pm

              Corbyn and Sanders, huh? So far they both have perfect records unblemished by any significant legislative successes, or of driving any change beyond minor modifications in their respective party platforms which have yet to get a sniff of getting implemented into real life changes.

              If either of them ever do get significant power, they will quickly find they have to make the same shitty compromises and accept the same incremental gains everyone else has to swallow. Or keep their perfect records of achieving nothing whatsoever of significance.

              As far as my personal political choices go, if I were living in a district like NY 14th, I’d be delighted to support someone like Ocasio-Cortez to knock out a useless old fossil like Crowley and get a vibrant energetic new progressive voice into the House. But in a district like the CA 50th, I’d be reluctant to support a candidate like Campa-Najjar in the primaries if there were another candidate closer to the likes of Conor Lamb. Because as severely damaged goods as Duncan Hunter was, a far lefty ain’t gonna win that district, while a moderate has an outside chance. Come the general election however, even a Dem that’s functionally a moderate Repug like Joe Manchin would get my vote when the other option is an out-on-the-fringes RWNJ.

              Meanwhile, you’re heaping your vitriol on someone that’s closer to you politically and shares more of your goals than at least 95% of the voting population. Because of a willingness to be patient and accept smaller changes rather than expecting it all at once.

              • Adrian Thornton …
                8 November 2018 at 3:58 pm

                @Andre
                “Meanwhile, you’re heaping your vitrio(l)” settle down there pal, you and I just see things differently,that’s all, you happen to believe that trickle down incremental change will miraculously start to be delivered in some sort of substantive and transformative way for 75% of the population after over 25 years of hollow promises…and I don’t…it is as simple as that.

                You say I live in a fantasy world, while the centrist ideology that you so passionately defend, has had over 25 years to prove it’s worth, but has only proved that it does not and will not ever deliver anything that I stand for, not in the USA and not in New Zealand.

                Although to be fair it has delivered for wealthy, the privileged, and the powerful pretty good over that time.

                No I think I will trust my own instincts and the instincts of Pilger, Chomsky, Greenwald, Blumenthal, Finkelstein, Fisk, Taibbi etc and aim just a little bit higher than that, but thanks.

                “Corbyn and Sanders, huh?” Fuck Yes!

          • Adrian Thornton 2.1.1.1.2
            8 November 2018 at 2:59 pm

            @Andre..”If there’s any chance of penetrating that fantasy you have that…” my response to that little barb is that I think your problem is that you have little or not enough imagination to imagine what can or could exist out side the rigid confines of what you are told is allowed to exist…. to afraid to ask for little more.

          • WeTheBleeple 2.1.1.1.3
            9 November 2018 at 6:57 am

            “their continual attacking of insufficiently progressive progressives is damaging the progressive movement”

            Absolutely.

      • Siobhan 2.1.2
        8 November 2018 at 3:29 pm

        “things could be worse’…great political slogan there Andre, that will get the voters out in droves..though maybe not the mothers of Black kids getting shot down by racist cops, or locked up for minor drug offences, or worse, thanks to the War on Drugs. Or asylum seekers.

        The less than funny thing is, Sessions is the mover and shaker behind a number of Trump Policies, so your ‘Things could be worse’ makes me think you are heading towards a point where you will need to claim that maybe Trump is the okay thing, and that there is something worse than Trump waiting in the wings.

        https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/06/sessions/563006/

        http://www.drugpolicy.org/press-release/2018/11/jeff-sessions-out-attorney-general-leaving-behind-disastrous-record-drug

        • Andre 2.1.2.1
          8 November 2018 at 3:54 pm

          I’ve no idea what I’ve ever said to make you think I would ever advocate for the turd tornado. But hey, you do you.

  4. Nick 4
    8 November 2018 at 11:32 am

    Sessions presence as AG was ideal if only for the fact that it pissed trumpf off endlessly. Unfortunately whoever takes over will be a dishonest frump appointed asshole crim, so there’s that….

  5. Andre 5
    8 November 2018 at 1:25 pm

    An interesting wee technical detail: had the Dork from New York actually fired Sessions, he would not have been able to appoint an acting Attorney General and Rosenstein would have automatically slid into the acting AG spot. So he had to extract a resignation, no matter how obviously forced, in order to be able to appoint someone who will more supinely do his bidding.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/08/29/trump-firing-jeff-sessions-looks-more-likely-than-ever-heres-storm-that-awaits/?utm_term=.17839a49f9fe

  6. joe90 6
    8 November 2018 at 7:39 pm

    The accidental AG.

    Whitaker told me in June 2017 that he was flying out from Iowa to NYC to be on CNN regularly because he was hoping to be noticed as a Trump defender, and through that to get a Trump judicial appointment back in Iowa.— John Q. Barrett (@JohnQBarrett) November 8, 2018

    • joe90 6.1
      8 November 2018 at 8:24 pm

      The best people.

      Today President Donald Trump fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions and announced that his chief of staff, Matthew Whitaker, would become acting attorney general. Whitaker is a former U.S. attorney in Iowa, but he was also involved in a Miami-based invention-marketing company the Federal Trade Commission shut down last year after calling it a scam.

      Whitaker not only sat on the board of World Patent Marketing but also once sent a threatening email to a former customer who had complained after he spent thousands of dollars and did not receive the promised services. Court records obtained by New Times for a 2017 feature about the fraudulent company show that in an August 2015 email to a disgruntled customer, Whitaker touted his background as a former federal attorney and declared that filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and “smearing” the company online could result in “serious civil and criminal consequences.”

      https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/trumps-acting-attorney-general-matthew-whitaker-was-part-of-world-patent-marketing-a-miami-based-invention-scam-company-10893091

    • joe90 6.2
      8 November 2018 at 11:49 pm

      And all roads lead to Koch.

      One of President Trump’s frequent attacks on Attorney General Jeff Sessions was his refusal to aggressively investigate and even prosecute Hillary Clinton. With newly named acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker in charge of the Justice Department for the foreseeable future, Trump has found an experienced Clinton antagonist to be the nation’s top law enforcement officer.

      Before he joined the Justice Department as Sessions’ chief of staff, Whitaker was the executive director of the innocuously named Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (yes, it also goes by the acronym FACT). The organization, founded in 2014, largely publicized what it described as ethical lapses by prominent Democrats and requested that government agencies and law enforcement investigate them—especially if they were Hillary Clinton.

      […]

      According to the Center for Responsive Politics, FACT’s treasurer was Neil Corkery, whose wife, Ann, was one of the founders of what’s now called the Judicial Crisis Network, one of the leading conservative nonprofits that advocates on behalf of Republican judicial nominees. The $600,000 FACT received in 2014, the Center for Responsive Politics said, came from DonorsTrust, a conservative fund that itself hides its donors and then distributes their largess.

      Charles Koch, CRP said, was one of DonorsTrust’s contributors: “In other words, an organization ‘dedicated to promoting accountability, ethics, and transparency’ gets 100 percent of its funds from a group that exists mainly as a vehicle for donors to elude transparency.”

      https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/11/matt-whitaker-foundation-accountability-civic-trust-hillary-clinton.html

  7. joe90 7
    8 November 2018 at 8:50 pm

    Well, corruption is a feature, not a flaw….

  8. Andre 8
    9 November 2018 at 8:55 am

    Interesting argument that Whitaker is constitutionally ineligible to be appointed acting Attorney General. Because he’s never been confirmed by the Senate to anything. What’s interesting about that argument is it’s being made by hard-core Repugs, such as Fox News’ Andrew Napolitano, and George Conway.

    https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/george-conway-new-york-times-op-ed_us_5be47732e4b0e843889555ac

  9. Macro 9
    9 November 2018 at 1:55 pm

    Massive Protests across the US right now over the forced resignation of Sessions and the appointment of Whitaker.
    https://www.trumpisnotabovethelaw.org/event/mueller-firing-rapid-response/search/

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2018/nov/08/elections-latest-live-us-news-updates-trump-ruth-bader-ginsburg-jim-acosta-cnn-american-politics-today

    and for some light humour:

    Trump Unable to Stop Caravan of Democratic Women Invading Washington

    By Andy Borowitz

    WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Donald J. Trump warned on Wednesday that a caravan of Democratic women was heading toward Washington, D.C., with the explicit goal of invading the nation’s capital.

    Speaking at a press conference at the White House, Trump acknowledged that he had failed in his bid to stop the caravan, which is on schedule to arrive in Washington on January 3, 2019.

    “The Democrats are responsible for sending this caravan, and, frankly, it’s a disgrace,” he said. “They are sending some dangerous women.”

    Elaborating on the threat posed by the caravan, Trump said, “Some of these women have fought in wars. They have fired guns. One of them is a mixed-martial-arts specialist. These are women who will kick your ass without hesitating.”

    Trump denied that he was irresponsibly stoking fears about the caravan of females. “Every Republican in Washington should be scared shitless of these women,” he said. “I know I am.”

    https://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/trump-unable-to-stop-caravan-of-democratic-women-invading-washington

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