To put it simply, the US President is arguing that his Attorney-General should have intervened to prevent his independent Justice Department from pressing criminal charges against two Republican congressmen.
Why? Because it might hurt the Republicans’ chances of retaining control of congress in the coming mid-term elections.
“Two easy wins now in doubt because there is not enough time,” Trump tweeted, before adding sarcastically: “Good job Jeff.”
Trump’s lack of comprehension about the notion of an independent Justice Department and Attorney-General has always been the weakest aspect of his presidency, but this takes it to a new level.
Let’s look at what these two congressmen are alleged to have done.
Californian Duncan Hunter and his wife, Margaret, are alleged to have spent more than $US250,000 ($347,650) in campaign funds on their own personal expenses. This included a $US14,000 holiday in Italy, 30 tequila shots for a bachelor party and a $US1164 tab for a dinner with friends in a Laguna Beach resort — “our treat”, Hunter told his friends.
They even used the funds to pay for a $US250 plane ride for the family rabbit.
Collins is accused of blatantly conducting insider trading during a White House picnic to minimise his family’s losses from a bad bet on a Sydney biotec company, illegally saving his family $US768,000 in losses.
For Trump to argue, as he did yesterday, that these “very popular” congressmen should not have been charged because it would harm the party’s electoral prospects in the mid-terms is a disgrace. For him to further argue that Sessions, as Attorney-General, should have intervened in the judicial process to manipulate the system to prevent or delay the charges for partisan political purposes is even worse.
As Republican senator Ben Sasse, a member of the Senate judiciary committee put it: “The US is not some banana republic with a two-tiered system of system of justice — one for the majority party and one for the minority party.”
The most generous response to Trump’s attack on Sessions is to dismiss it as theatrical hyperbole, another over-the-top thought bubble that means nothing in the long run. But the thinking that underlies such a rant is dangerous and undemocratic, and it deserves to be condemned.
Cameron Stewart is also US contributor for Sky News Australia
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