Former Trump adviser Roger Stone fired off a couple of suggestions for President Trump on Saturday, encouraging him to dismiss “insubordinate hillbilly” Attorney General Jeff Sessions among others.
Stone, a self-described political trickster who was an aide to former President Richard Nixon, said on Saturday in Washington that Sessions should be sent “back to Alabama” while speaking at the right-wing “Mother of All Rallies” event in Washington, Huffington Post reported. Sessions represented the southern state in the Senate before he joined the Justice Department.
Stone suggested that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and special counsel Robert Mueller should be pushed out as well.
The trio have become targets of Trump amid the federal Russia investigation. The president has repeatedly blamed Sessions and Rosenstein for not exerting control over the broad probe, especially since Sessions recused himself from overseeing Russia-related inquiries in March 2017. Trump has similarly accused Sessions’ Justice Department of being biased against him.
Stone’s comments follow speculation he may become entangled in the investigation, given how a number of his associates have been subpoenaed by federal prosecutors, but he himself has yet to be contacted.
Stone’s legal exposure may arise from a moment during the 2016 campaign when he appeared to foreshadow the WikiLeaks dump of emails belonging to John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman. The U.S. intelligence community believes Russian intelligence was behind the stolen Podesta emails.
Stone has both bragged about his association with WikiLeaks, as well as distanced himself from the organization and its founder, Julian Assange.
