Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Trump launches new attack on Sessions: Disgraceful

BY JORDAN FABIAN - 02/28/18 09:49 AM EST 272

President Trump on Wednesday launched a new attack on Attorney General Jeff Sessions, calling it "disgraceful" that he has asked an inspector general and not Justice Department lawyers to investigate potential surveillance abuses.

The president said the Justice Department’s inspector general is ill-equipped to probe allegations that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) was improperly used to surveil members of his transition team.

“Why is A.G. Jeff Sessions asking the Inspector General to investigate potentially massive FISA abuse,” Trump tweeted.

“Will take forever, has no prosecutorial power and already late with reports on Comey etc. Isn’t the I.G. an Obama guy? Why not use Justice Department lawyers? DISGRACEFUL!”

Trump’s public shaming is the latest in a long line of attacks against Sessions, whom he has repeatedly criticized for recusing himself from the Russia probe.

It comes one day after the attorney general announced his department’s internal watchdog would look into Trump’s claims that Obama administration officials misused their surveillance powers to track his associates following the 2016 election.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters Tuesday she believed Trump “certainly supports the decision to look into what we feel to be some wrongdoing.”

“I think that's the role of the Department of Justice, and we're glad that they're fulfilling that job,” she said.

Michael Horowitz, the Justice Department inspector general, was confirmed to his position during the Obama administration in 2012.

But he also received political appointments under President George W. Bush and is seen by people who know him as an independent voice.

Horowitz is also overseeing an investigation into the FBI and Justice Department’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email probe during the 2016 election.

Updated: 10:21 p.m.