Jason Chaffetz has announced on Twitter (where all the Big Announcements from politicians happen these days) that “AG Sessions should clarify his testimony and recuse himself.”
This seems like a sensible position. (Indeed, Sessions has already offered to recuse himself “whenever it’s appropriate.”) Let’s put it in context.
….
That said, Chaffetz’s call for recusal and clarification is not a bad idea. Sessions’s answer was far too categorical and unqualified: “I’ve been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I did not have communications with the Russians.” Well, he did meet with the Russian ambassador, and it appears that of the other members of the committee who responded to a Washington Post inquiry (not all responded), nobody else said they had met with the Russian ambassador. As Tom Maguire noted on Twitter, that ambassador had a reason to meet with all Trump’s surrogates, including Sessions — but not necessarily with other committee members.
The bottom line is that there is no evidence Sessions met with the ambassador as a member of Trump’s campaign — but the wording of his answer was inexact. Rather than digging in his heels, he should indeed clarify his statement, and should recuse himself from inquiries into contacts between the Russians and Trump campaign officials. This doesn’t mean he needs to resign or that he perjured himself — just that he needs to hold himself to a high ethical standard — and be more careful about how he answers questions in the future.
- Discussion
-
Jason Chaffetz Calls on Sessions to Recuse and Clarify His Statement https://t.co/a2wf1ExzPf
— RedState (@RedState) March 2, 2017
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.