In his New York Times interview on Wednesday, Donald Trump broke rather dramatically from his Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Trump said that he had he known Sessions would refuse himself from the investigation into Russian meddling in the election, the president would have chosen someone else for the post. Trump blames sessions recusal for the appointment of Special counsel Robert Mueller.
According to a new Bloomberg story, Mueller is now conducting a wide ranging probe into some of the President's business dealings and those of his associates. With us to talk about this fast changing subject is Leah Lippman. She's a law professor at the University of California, Irvine. Leah, thanks for being with us. UM. Let's start with Jeff Sessions today, he said he wasn't going to resign, notwithstanding with the President said in the President's apparent lack of confidence in him.
Is he in an untenable position now? I think he's certainly in a difficult situation. You know, he no longer has the public support from the White House. UM. He's also received some criticism from former d Og officials for his failure to defend the department independence from the president. Um, when the president has made the marks, including this one, that the department for his own purposes instead of as
a justice that his mission identifies. Leah, is it this different from a different an attorney general under a different kind of president? Because Donald Trump doesn't seem to be particularly concerned or involved about the issues that Jeff Sessions is concerned about. He seems to be going off on his own. UM. Yeah, so it might be UM, but that it tells might raise additional problems for the president.
You know, Jeff Sessions had done UM a lot in his tenure already, the Department launching the new guidelines about these the civil formiture proceedings just this test week. But the stuff that the presidency is most interested in is Jeff sessions ability to control the Russia related investigation. And that raises some problems for the admitted sustration because, for one thing, it substantiates some of the UM allegations that have come out thus far that the president is requesting
owes the perginal loyalty from officials to serve under him. Um. You know he's complained about Jeff Sessions is that he didn't disclose to the president that he would have recused and if he had disclosed at the president would have hired someone else who would be more loyal to the president with respect of the Russia related investigation, um So, I think that the President's single minded focused on Jeff Session's role as it relates to the President's own interests,
um is not a great look for the administration. Leah, can you just remind us why Jeff Sessions recused himself from the Russian investigation in the first place, and in your mind, did he have a whole lot of choice
in doing that? Sure, um So, Jeff Sessions procused himself in the Russia related investigations because after he was confirmed, it came out that he had failed to disclose some meetings he had had um with Russian officials, and because its undisclosed contact with Russian officials were potentially relevant to the investigation into the Trump campaign and Trump affiliates links to connections with Russia, he had to refuse himself from
a position in which he controlled that investigation. To my mind, he did not have much choice in his decision to recuse so, and this again creates a problem for the president, and that the president is essentially criticizing just Sessions for following the law. Um leah Um. The President told The New York Times yesterday that Robert Mueller digging into matters beyond Russia would be out of bounds. He did not say whether or not he would attempt to fire him
if he tried that. If he went down that route, would that be a very big mistake or even a small mistake. UM. So it's difficult to know exactly, UM, what line the President would draw with respect to Robert Mueller. You know, many of his affiliates are already speaking publicly about concerns that they have with the Mueller investigation, including UM, his very appointment as well as his staff, UM and whatnot.
If the President ultimately makes the decision to fire Robert Mueller or attempt to find an official below him who would do so, that that would raise real problems. UM. The current regulations only allow the Attorney General or in this case coecutly the Attorney General Rod Roseen Games and suspessitions as were too, to fire UM the Special Council
once they've been appointed. So if the President tried to fire Mueller outside of the legal process, that would see up an instance in which the president is acting a legal league and Congress would have to decide what to
do about that. If instead the President went the route of trying to find an official like Rod Rosenstein or someone who would sub in for Rod Rosenscheine to fire Mueller instead of himself doing it, that would take us back to some of the concerns that were part of the Saturday night massacre that eventually contributed to in free public and congressional scrutiny on President nixent lye, we only have about a minute left, but I would like to
get your reaction to the Bloomberg story today about the broad broadening of the Muller probe, or at least the fact that he is now conducting a pretty wide inquiry into some of Donald Trump's business dealings, at least with regard to Russia. What what What's your your take on that story? So, I guess I found it both significant
but also not surprising. It's not that surprising that the investigation would look to some of the Trump businesses connections with Russia, because to the extent that they're looking for the Trump Canapians connection with Russia's than any financial dealings and leverage that the Russian government might have of those officials is very much relevant to their investigation because it
explains potential notives for the funnies feeling. But it was also very significant because, as I think you previous best mentioned, it does greatly expand the scope of the potential materials that might be relevant to the Special Council's investigation. Okay, I want to thank our guest, Leah Littman. She is
a law professor at the University of California, Irvine. Talking about, among other things, Donald Trump's comments that he wished she had appointed somebody else other than Jeff Sessions to be Attorney General,