Jeff Sessions remains confident in Mueller probe’s integrity

Zach
Gibson/Getty Images

• Recently ousted Attorney General Jeff Sessions told the
  Wall Street Journal he is “confident” in Robert Mueller’s probe
  of the Russian interference in the 2016 presidential
  campaign.
• But Sessions also said he finds the investigation to be
  “unhealthy” for the country as it drags out over nearly the
  past two years.
• Sessions once again defended his decision to recuse
  himself from the special counsel investigation.

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Recently resigned Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he is
“confident” that the special counsel investigation into Russian
interference in the 2016 presidential campaign — headed by former
FBI Director Robert Mueller — can continue to be handled
“appropriately and with justification.”

In an
interview with the Wall Street Journal published on Thursday,
Sessions expressed confidence in the Mueller probe and noted that
he made the right decision to
recuse himself from the investigation in March 2017.

Sessions defended the investigation, telling the WSJ that
“the country is committed to this course” but added he finds it
to be “unhealthy” for the nation to have the probe drag on for as
long as it has.

It is not the first time Sessions has opened up about the
justification for his recusal. During a
meeting with The Federalist Society, the then-attorney
general said, “I think that’s what I had to do.”

And shortly after the investigation began, Sessions

told the Senate Intelligence Committee that he took the
correct course of action.

“I recused myself, not because of any asserted wrongdoing, or any
belief that I may have been involved in any wrongdoing in the
campaign,” Sessions said, “but because a Department of Justice
regulation … I felt, required it.”

But Sessions’ decision was not without difficulties. President
Donald Trump had
reportedly pressured Sessions to rethink the recusal on
multiple occasions, citing a desire to be protected by his
cabinet.

Sessions
resigned on Wednesday, just one day after the midterm
elections concluded. Trump appointed Matthew Whitaker, his chief
of staff, to be acting attorney general.