April 26, 2018

Trump Announces He’s Considering Interfering With Justice Department Investigations

The threat comes amid the Russia probe and the president’s calls for prosecutions of Hillary Clinton and James Comey.

President Donald Trump speaks on the South Lawn of the White House during the French state visit on Tuesday.Alex Edelman/CNP via ZUMA

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

President Donald Trump suggested during an interview on Fox & Friends Thursday that he might become involved in the work of in his Justice Department—a threat that could signal a desire by the commander in chief to interfere with investigations into his campaign and business associates, as well as investigations relating to his perceived political enemies.

“I’ve taken the position—and I don’t have to take this position, and maybe I’ll change—that I will not be involved with the Justice Department,” Trump said. “I will wait till this is over,” he added, referring to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow and, reportedly, potential obstruction of justice by Trump.

The Justice Department and the FBI are supposed to maintain independence and avoid political interference in criminal investigations and prosecutions. But Trump has expressed a desire for an attorney general who will shield him from investigations. Since taking office, Trump has fired former FBI Director James Comey and pressured Attorney General Jeff Sessions to remove Comey’s deputy, Andrew McCabe. Trump has also reportedly considered removing other top-ranking Justice Department officials, including Sessions, who recused himself from the Russia probe against Trump’s wishes; Mueller; Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed and oversees Mueller; and FBI Director Christopher Wray, whom Trump appointed to replace Comey. Trump may have been referring to some of these people on Thursday when he said, “They have this witch hunt going on with people in the Justice Department that shouldn’t be there.”

Trump has also repeatedly suggested the DOJ should prosecute some of his critics, including Hillary Clinton and Comey.

Trump returned to the issue of Justice Department independence a minute later. “I’m very disappointed in my Justice Department,” he said. “But because of the fact that it’s going on, and I think you’ll understand that, I have decided that I won’t be involved. I may change my mind at some point, because what’s going on is a disgrace.”

At the end of the free-wheeling Fox interview, Trump returned to the issue a third time, accusing top FBI officials of corruption, and in particular criticizing McCabe, who was recently fired by Sessions over allegations that McCabe had made misleading statements about his actions relating to the FBI’s 2016 investigation into Clinton. “Our Justice Department—which I try and stay away from, but at some point I won’t—our Justice Department should be looking at that kind of stuff, not the nonsense of collusion with Russia,” the president said. 

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