24 July, 2017
Russia's ambassador to Washington Sergei Kislyak, a key figure in ongoing US investigations into Moscow's meddling in the 2016 presidential election, ended his tenure on Saturday.
Entirely unsurprisingly, the new New York Times interview with President Trump shows he has learned nothing from the biggest mistakes of the first six months of his presidency.
Congressional lawmakers say President Donald Trump's eldest son and his former campaign chairman won't testify publicly next week as part of the Russian Federation election meddling investigation.
In the same Wednesday interview, Trump lashed out at Mueller, Rosenstein, James Comey, the FBI director Trump fired, and acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, who replaced Comey.
Several people close to Trump including his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, who has also been ensnared in the Russian Federation probe have told the president that they, too, believe Sessions' decision to recuse himself was a mistake, according to three White House and outside advisers who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. "How do you take a job and then recuse yourself?" He did so after failing to disclose at his confirmation hearing that he had held meetings a year ago with Russia's ambassador. "Right after he gets the job, he recuses himself", Trump said, adding the attorney general "should have never recused himself, and if he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me before he took the job, and I would have picked somebody else".
Trump tweeted Saturday: "While all agree the U. S. President has the complete power to pardon, why think of that when only crime so far is LEAKS against us". I have the honour of serving as attorney general, it goes beyond any thought I would have ever had for myself. "The work we're doing today is the kind of work we intend to continue".
They took only a few questions before a spokesman asked if there were any questions about the department's dismantlement of AlphaBay, a "dark web" market. Yet Donald Trump's airing of his long-simmering frustrations with Sessions raised significant new questions about the future of the nation's top prosecutor.
In the Times interview, Trump blasted both Sessions and Rosenstein, focusing his anger on what led to the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller, who is now investigating whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russian officials during the 2016 presidential campaign.
In his new role, Rosenstein was tasked with appointing a special counsel to oversee the Russian Federation probe. Next week, Trump's son-in-law and White House adviser, Jared Kushner, and the president's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., are scheduled to testify before Senate panels, as well as former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort.
Moscow has denied any interference, and Trump has said his campaign did not collude with Russian Federation.
