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President Donald Trump shakes hands with Attorney General Jeff Sessions before viewing the solar eclipse at the White House on August 21, 2017 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
Less than a day after Attorney General Jeff Sessions declared that the U.S. Justice Department would "not be improperly influenced by political considerations," nearly the first thing President Donald Trump did early Friday morning was to call on Sessions to deploy his department's vast power and resources to go after those Trump explicitly perceives as his political enemies.
"Jeff, this is great, what everyone wants, so look into all of the corruption on the 'other side' including deleted emails, Comey lies and leaks, Mueller conflicts, McCabe, Strzok, Page, Ohr," Trump wrote after quoting Sessions' remarks on remaining independent from politics.
"FISA abuse, Christopher Steele and his phony and corrupt dossier, the Clinton Foundation, illegal surveillance of Trump campaign, Russian collusion by Dems--and so much more. Open up the papers and documents without redaction?" Trump went on. "Come on Jeff, you can do it, the country is waiting!"
Trump's demand that Sessions direct the Justice Department's energy toward pursuing the president's conspiratorial whims--a demand that comes as the department's resources could be better spent on, say, reuniting the 528 children who remain separated from their parents thanks to its cruel "zero tolerance policy"--was immediately denounced by legal experts as abnormal and dangerous.
"No, it's not normal for the president to be issuing official statements going after his attorney general and directing him to investigate people he doesn't like," Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington (CREW) declared on Twitter.
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Less than a day after Attorney General Jeff Sessions declared that the U.S. Justice Department would "not be improperly influenced by political considerations," nearly the first thing President Donald Trump did early Friday morning was to call on Sessions to deploy his department's vast power and resources to go after those Trump explicitly perceives as his political enemies.
"Jeff, this is great, what everyone wants, so look into all of the corruption on the 'other side' including deleted emails, Comey lies and leaks, Mueller conflicts, McCabe, Strzok, Page, Ohr," Trump wrote after quoting Sessions' remarks on remaining independent from politics.
"FISA abuse, Christopher Steele and his phony and corrupt dossier, the Clinton Foundation, illegal surveillance of Trump campaign, Russian collusion by Dems--and so much more. Open up the papers and documents without redaction?" Trump went on. "Come on Jeff, you can do it, the country is waiting!"
Trump's demand that Sessions direct the Justice Department's energy toward pursuing the president's conspiratorial whims--a demand that comes as the department's resources could be better spent on, say, reuniting the 528 children who remain separated from their parents thanks to its cruel "zero tolerance policy"--was immediately denounced by legal experts as abnormal and dangerous.
"No, it's not normal for the president to be issuing official statements going after his attorney general and directing him to investigate people he doesn't like," Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington (CREW) declared on Twitter.
Less than a day after Attorney General Jeff Sessions declared that the U.S. Justice Department would "not be improperly influenced by political considerations," nearly the first thing President Donald Trump did early Friday morning was to call on Sessions to deploy his department's vast power and resources to go after those Trump explicitly perceives as his political enemies.
"Jeff, this is great, what everyone wants, so look into all of the corruption on the 'other side' including deleted emails, Comey lies and leaks, Mueller conflicts, McCabe, Strzok, Page, Ohr," Trump wrote after quoting Sessions' remarks on remaining independent from politics.
"FISA abuse, Christopher Steele and his phony and corrupt dossier, the Clinton Foundation, illegal surveillance of Trump campaign, Russian collusion by Dems--and so much more. Open up the papers and documents without redaction?" Trump went on. "Come on Jeff, you can do it, the country is waiting!"
Trump's demand that Sessions direct the Justice Department's energy toward pursuing the president's conspiratorial whims--a demand that comes as the department's resources could be better spent on, say, reuniting the 528 children who remain separated from their parents thanks to its cruel "zero tolerance policy"--was immediately denounced by legal experts as abnormal and dangerous.
"No, it's not normal for the president to be issuing official statements going after his attorney general and directing him to investigate people he doesn't like," Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington (CREW) declared on Twitter.