Recusals & Refusals

Jeff Sessions is lately becoming the guy that both sides like to hate on. (Much to the relief of Paul Ryan.) Conservatives, especially Trump's staunch supporters, are highly frustrated with "Sleepy Sessions" because we aren't getting the bulldog anti-corruption prosecutions we were promised during the election. I've fallen to the temptation to bash him from time to time, because he seems to have recused himself from all cases that don't involve the devil's lettuce.

But really I think he's getting a bad rap for recusing himself. Trump has now attacked him over it. Jason Chaffetz was on the news the the other days saying we need a new AG. We're all similarly frustrated. We've got a clear case of seditious conspiracy across the upper echelons of the previous government and no one to prosecute it. You can't drain the swamp without someone to pull the plug! Still I think if we take a step back we can make the case that Sessions has behaved optimally so far, but perhaps by accident. The real concern is if he will continue to recuse himself into some obscure corner of history.

Session recused himself from the investigations of the Trump campaign. That is proper. As a member of the Trump campaign team, there is no acceptable way for him to oversee the investigation. The problem, of course, isn't that Session ducked out; it's that the special counsel is a deep state coup looking to destroy the president. "If they don't follow the rules, neither should we." That's true, but still I don't see how we Team Trump can blow this out of the water by openly fighting dirty. They're fighting a seriously uphill battle against the perceptions broadcast by the mainstream propaganda outlets. Sucks, but that's the reality.

Session also recused himself - effectively - of going after Hillary Clinton. Trump supporters are livid about this but, again, I don't see what choice Sessions had. Clinton was Trump's opponent. Going after the President's former opponent - even if that's what Hillary did by buying a FISA warrant - is terrible optics and a bad precedent to set. No one wants to risk falling into the pattern of the newly minted AG hanging the opposition candidate on the public square. As tough a pill as it is, our only chance against Hillary is though an independent counsel or through state courts. There is a lot the AG can do around the edges too.

Sessions isn't the only significant recusal of FISAgate. Judge Rudolph Contreras was recused from hearing Michael Flynn's case. This is interesting because Contreras just so happens to sit on the FISC. Until/if the relevant records are declassified, we won't know what role the judge played but it seems almost certain that Contreras was recused because of his role in the Carter Page Title I FISA warrant. Two possibilities come to mind. One is that Contreras issued the warrant against Page and Flynn's conversations were picked up through the resulting surveillance. The other possibility is that it was Contreras that declined the initial warrant request in June, and was forced to recuse because he had already exercise a negative opinion of the investigation. In either case, this is a big hook for Congressional investigators to grab onto.

Last in the realm of recusals & refusals, we need to look at Mueller. There are three main components to the Russia collusion probe: the investigation team, the prosecution team, and Mueller. The investigation team was largely just the same FBI team that was already engaged in a palace coup, with the same lead agent who ran the Hillary email debacle and was then deliberately working to impeach Trump. There is a very relevant section in the Strzok/Page texts. On June 6, 2017, he shows concern about getting Mueller's approval for team members, and she responds that she doesn't see why Strzok wouldn't be able to pick whomever he wants. Later that night, he informs her that he has teed her up for 702 education for the team.

These two message may be the ones that really go on to haunt the special counsel. Remember the media narrative is that Strzok was just one agent, and the special counsel demonstrated it's dedication to impartiality by removing him. But Strzok likely picked the core contingent of the team. Not only that, but his co-conspirator was in charge of bringing any new member up to speed on 702 issues. It was the 702s that allowed the FBI to spy on the entire Trump campaign based on a single Title I warrant against Carter Page. So the two get to pick the team and then teach them how the spying on the now-Presidential team is done.

The second component of the team are the private-sector prosecuting attorneys. Page is worried about them because they have edged her out; she no longer has a strong role on the team. Strzok expresses his major concern is that they'll work too hard, even though they've taken big paycuts to join the team. The constantly talk about the new "smart lawyers" they're now working with. It's quite clear why these bigshot lawyers would take a government salary to join the team: they're sharks looking to make a name for themselves. And as we already know, they're almost all donors to the Clinton campaign.

Finally we get to the point man, Mueller. He was the previous FBI Director, and is a friend of Comey. So he's investigating against the man who fired his friend and successor. Not only that, but he was director under Obama, who waivered him to stay 2 years past his legal limit. That's right, Mueller ran the show there for 12 years. What's real interesting is the his extension covered 2012 and 2013. That is, he was kept on for a bit following Obama's re-election. Why? A reasonable theory is that the Obama administration did not just start spying on political opponents in 2016, but that they did so in 2012 as well. In fact it would be entirely unreasonable to assume that 2016 was a dirty election but 2012 was run clean. Mueller was kept on to tie up the loose ends, and has been brought back to contain the crimes that occurred under his watch, possibly under his direction. There is not yet a ton of supporting evidence, but the appearance of impropriety is as clear as day.

So his team consists of seditious investigation team, a head-hunting prosecution team, and a leader who falls under suspicion of impropriety. The whole investigation is illegitimate until he recuses himself and the investigation team is completely re-rostered. As it is, there is no way this team bags much in the way of successful prosecution. Look how they've backpedalled on Flynn. All they are doing now is finding any excuse to investigate the team to find something to leak to the press. If Trump's tax returns leak you'll know where they came from. I bet we'll see something like that around October 2020.

So far, so good, really. Sessions has played it right and there's a special counsel that can leak but not prosecute, and the longer they continue the more damage they seem to do to themselves. The big question is whether Sessions will recuse himself from prosecuting the criminals from within his own ranks. This is entirely within his domain. There is no conflict of interest if he recuses himself from going after the corruption in the FBI/DOJ. But so far there is no reason for optimism. He said, "no agency is perfect" is response to evidence of an FBI political witch hunt. That is scary. So far so good, but unless something changes we have every reason to believe he's an ineffectual putz at best. If he recuses himself from prosecuting an easy case of seditious conspiracy, Trump should certainly fire him and replace with someone who has no infinite list of reason to recuse. I hear Trey Gowdy is looking for a job.