Growing Chorus of Republicans Calls for Sessions to Recuse Himself From Russia Probe

One by one, the list is getting longer, after a report that Sessions lied about contacts with the Russian ambassador.

Jim Loscalzo/CNP/ZUMA

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


Congressional Republicans are coming around to the idea that the Trump administration’s ties to Russia need to be investigated by someone other than Attorney General Jeff Sessions, following a Washington Post report that Sessions lied during his confirmation hearing about interactions with the Russian government. When Sessions testified before the Senate last month, he said he “did not have communications with the Russians” during the presidential campaign. In fact, the Post reported Wednesday night, he met twice with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, once last September in a private meeting in Sessions’ Senate office.

A trickle of Republicans are now saying that Sessions should no longer have a role in any investigation into improper contacts between Trump’s staff and Russian state actors during last year’s campaign.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), chair of the House Oversight Committee, called on Sessions to clarify his contacts with Russia and step aside from the investigation:

Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) called Sessions out on Twitter:

Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) sent out a statement Thursday morning saying Sessions needs to step aside. “Jeff Sessions is a former colleague and friend, but I think it would be best for him and for the country to recuse himself from the DOJ Russia probe,” Portman’s statement said. Rep. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.), Rep. Patrick Meehan (R-Pa.), Rep. Leonard Lance (R-N.J.), and Rep. Raul Labrador (R-Idaho) have also said Sessions should recuse himself. Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) stopped just short of calling on Sessions to step aside. “Obviously he is going to need to clarify,” Flake told Reuters, “and likely recuse himself from any investigation with regard to the Russians.”

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) briefly joined the calls for recusal when he said it would be “easier” if Sessions removed himself. But he quickly walked that back Thursday morning, going on Fox to say, “I’m not calling on him to recuse himself.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told Mother Jones on Thursday that he thinks Sessions would need to recuse himself if allegations of improper contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia are borne out. “You got an attorney general who is my dear friend, who is closely involved with the presidential campaign,” Graham told Mother Jones. “If there’s credibility to the allegations of inappropriate contacts between a foreign government and the campaign, in my view, for the good of the integrity of the system, somebody should pursue that—not Jeff Sessions.”

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) issued a statement Thursday afternoon calling on Sessions to recuse himself “to ensure public confidence in the Justice Department’s investigation.”

This story is being updated as more Republicans announce their views on Sessions.

WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we need readers to show up for us big time—again.

Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

If you can right now, please support the journalism you get from Mother Jones with a donation at whatever amount works for you. And please do it now, before you move on to whatever you're about to do next and think maybe you'll get to it later, because every gift matters and we really need to see a strong response if we're going to raise the $253,000 we need in less than three weeks.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we need readers to show up for us big time—again.

Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

If you can right now, please support the journalism you get from Mother Jones with a donation at whatever amount works for you. And please do it now, before you move on to whatever you're about to do next and think maybe you'll get to it later, because every gift matters and we really need to see a strong response if we're going to raise the $253,000 we need in less than three weeks.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate