For what it’s worth, the Mueller report thoroughly absolves former Attorney General Jeff Sessions from accusations from the political Left, the Right, and a ranting President Trump.
The Left’s favorite meme at the beginning of Trump’s term was that Sessions had perjured himself regarding contacts with Russian officials. Mueller’s report refutes that. The Right said Sessions refused to properly investigate Hillary Clinton. The Mueller report and other documents show that he did order such an investigation, at the appropriate time, even while wisely shielding it from political interference.
Trump’s obsessively repeated public complaint about Sessions was that the he should never have recused himself from the Russia investigation. Mueller’s report shows, in multitudinous ways, how ignorant and abusive Trump’s stance on this was. Sessions was ethically bound to recuse himself.
On the perjury that the Left so desperately tried to imagine into existence, Mueller’s conclusion is succinct: In light of “the wording and context” of questions senators asked Sessions, the “evidence … makes it plausible that Sessions did not recall discussing the campaign” with the Russian diplomat in question. Likewise on another question about his very brief interactions with the diplomat, “given the context in which the question was asked,” again Sessions’ explanation was “plausible.”
On investigating Hillary Clinton, no attorney general should open a criminal investigation merely because a president wants his political adversary punished. There must be good reason, backed by analyses by department professionals, to do so. For many months, Trump browbeat Sessions to try to force such an investigation. The Mueller report shows he continued to browbeat Sessions for months after Sessions actually appointed prosecutors in November 2017 to investigate the handling of the Clinton matter.
In short, Sessions did the right thing by letting evidence (including an inspector general’s report) determine if and when a probe should begin, and further acting rightly by shielding that probe from presidential/political interference – even at the considerable cost of having the president continue to flay him for supposed inaction.
The way Sessions handled the Clinton probe was thus somewhat self-sacrificial. It ensured, though, that the Clinton-related probe (which still apparently continues) would not become a circus like the Mueller-Russia investigation.
Finally, as to Sessions’ recusal from the inquiry into Russian perfidy: Sessions unambiguously did the right thing.
First, as the Mueller report confirms, Sessions was following the direct advice of the Justice Department’s office of ethics. Any attorney general who failed to heed such advice would be subject to immediate calls for impeachment. Second, the Mueller report shows Sessions was absolutely a subject of the investigation itself, because of the Democrats’ allegations that he had perjured himself. Any sentient, semi-informed citizen knows that nobody should oversee a criminal investigation which includes an allegation against oneself.
Trump’s chorus has said repeatedly that Sessions’ recusal was a mere matter of showboating his own rectitude, as if the only supposed conflict were that Sessions was peripherally part of the campaign the FBI was investigating. Poppycock. As described above, Sessions was a direct, not peripheral, subject of inquiry. He was absolutely obliged to recuse, despite knowing (of course) that he never intentionally misled the Senate.
Trump has said Sessions never should have taken the job if Sessions were going to recuse himself. Nonsense. Sessions was not the subject of any probe until after he already was being confirmed – because of course the (false) allegation against him didn’t arrive until Democrats ambushed him with it at the confirmation hearing.
The Mueller report makes all this evident. Sessions is honorable. All sides of the political spectrum were wrong to suggest, or shout from the rooftops, otherwise.
