Attorney General Sessions must resign, breach of public trust

Attorney General Sessions must resign, breach of public trust

By Roger Caldwell

“Jeff Sessions is an honest man. He did not say anything wrong. He could have stated his response more accurately, but it was clearly not intentional,” says President Trump.

If Jeff Sessions was an honest man, why did he not tell the truth during his confirmation hearings with the Senate Judiciary Committee?  As the “Top Cop” in the land, Americans must have faith and confidence in every decision the Attorney General makes because it affects the public trust.

Chris Van Hollen of the DSCC says, “The Attorney General of the United States must have the people’s trust as an honest and independent broker who upholds the law. In failing to tell the truth – under oath – about his conversations with Russia, Jeff Sessions has failed to meet that standard, and he must resign.”

There are no gray areas with the attorney general, and there are no second chances. Jeff Sessions lied. He is the chief law enforcement officer, chief lawyer and chief prosecutor in our government. When the American people cannot trust our chief law enforcement officer, then who can we trust?

On Thursday, March 2nd, Jeff Sessions held a press conference, and I expected him to resign, but he acted like he had not violated or broken any laws. In fact, it appeared as though he thought he’d done the American people a favor by announcing his intention to recuse himself from any executive branch investigations into the Trump campaign.

The problem with Trump’s administration is they are dealing from the bottom of the deck. They have been in cover-up mode from the very beginning, and they are hiding something.

“Let me be clear: I never had meetings with Russian operatives or Russian intermediaries about the Trump campaign. And the idea that I was part of a continuing exchange of information during the campaign between Trump surrogates and intermediaries for the Russian government is totally false,” Sessions said at a hastily called press conference at the Justice Department.

It was revealed by the Washington Post that Attorney General Sessions had met twice with the Russian ambassador during the 2016 campaign. Somehow, our attorney general was suffering with amnesia under oath, and he failed to disclose the meetings during his Senate confirmation hearings.

Now Trump is calling this scandal “a witch hunt.” Also, the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is putting out a public statement, and calling this scandal  “a witch hunt.” Something just does not smell right when the president and the Russian Foreign Minister agree that a lie from our chief law enforcement officer should be excused, and any accusations of misconduct should be swept under the rug.

Jeff Sessions has committed the crime of perjury, and it is a criminal offense of lying under oath. A perjury charge is when someone makes a false statement after being sworn in or promising to tell the truth. This was not a mistake; it was intentional. Sessions has damaged his credibility and fundamentally impaired his ability to run the Department of Justice.

Just as Michael Flynn was forced to resign because he lied and broke the law, there is no difference in what Jeff Sessions has done. Sessions must resign immediately, and confusion and amnesia cannot be used where there should only be truth.

America’s public trust is at stake, and President Trump must ask for Sessions’ resignation. There should be no discussion that Sessions must go.

The Rule of Law should always prevail and once there is a breach of the public trust, the individual must exit their post. Jeff Sessions has broken the public trust, and the Department of Justice needs a new leader.