President Trump blasted his attorney general in a tweet on Wednesday for his “DISGRACEFUL!” handling of the investigation into allegations that the FBI abused federal surveillance rules to monitor a former Trump campaign aide.
Sessions, who has been in Trump’s dog house since recusing himself from the Russia investigation in March 2017, announced on Tuesday that he would task the Department of Justice’s inspector general to look into how the FBI convinced a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to authorize monitoring of Carter Page.
“Why is A.G. Jeff Sessions asking the Inspector General to investigate potentially massive FISA abuse,” Trump lashed out on Twitter. “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 is right about Michael Horowitz, the inspector general, who was named to the post by President Obama in 2012, but he is wrong about the work of the watchdog agency.
The inspector general’s office, which is part of the DOJ, is charged with probing allegations of wrongdoing by government workers, according to reports.
And while it has no prosecutorial powers of its own, the office can build criminal charges and refer them to the DOJ and FBI.
It is already reviewing the FBI’s handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server. That report is expected in the next couple of months.
“We believe the Department of Justice must adhere to the high standards in the FISA court,” Sessions said during the announcement on Tuesday. “Yes it will be investigated. And I think that’s just the appropriate thing the inspector general will take that as one of the matters he’ll deal with.”
He declined to comment on Trump’s tweets when asked by reporters, but Republican Rep. Peter King vouched for his allegiance.
“Jeff Sessions is loyal to the president and he’s one of the first to support him, and he’s often in very difficult positions and I think he’s trying to reconcile as best as he can,” King told Fox’s “America’s Newsroom.”
“I wouldn’t do that,” he added.
Sessions, a former senator from Alabama, was the first sitting senator to endorse Trump’s candidacy in February 2016.
But their relationship began to unravel after Sessions removed himself from the Russia probe after his meetings
with a Russian ambassador during the campaign were revealed.
At one point, Sessions offered to resign, but Trump rejected it.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on Tuesday that Trump would likely back Sessions launching a probe into the warrants.
“It’s something that he’s clearly had frustration over so I would imagine he certainly support the decision to look into what we feel to be some wrongdoing,” she said at the daily briefing. “I think that’s the role of the Department of Justice and we’re glad that they’re fulfilling that job.”
Republican and Democratic members of the House Intelligence Committee have released competing memos about the FBI’s involvement is getting the FISA warrant against Page, and each comes to different conclusions.
With Post wires