United States

Jeff Session’s recusal, James Comey’s firing, and Robert Mueller’s appointment as special counsel

From July 2016 a secret investigation had been conducted into possible collusion between Russian officials and prominent members of the Trump campaign. On March 2, 2017, Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from oversight of that no-longer secret investigation after controversy grew regarding his own meetings with Kislyak before the election and over statements Sessions had made during his confirmation hearing regarding the possibility of preelection contacts between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. Almost from the outset of the first reports of Russian involvement in the election, Trump had been dubious of the veracity of the accusations and downplayed their significance, casting them as an outgrowth of Democrats’ sour-grapes frustration at losing the presidential election.

In May Trump dismissed Comey as director of the FBI shortly after Comey testified before Congress, in part about the bureau’s investigation of possible Russian intervention in the election. Purportedly, Trump fired Comey at the recommendation of recently appointed Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who, in a memo solicited by the president, criticized Comey’s handling of the public announcements related to Clinton’s e-mails. Soon after Comey’s dismissal, however, the president made it known that he had planned to fire Comey regardless of the Justice Department’s recommendation, at least partly because of Comey’s handling of “this Russia thing,” which Trump repeatedly characterized as a politically motivated witch hunt. Following his ouster, a memo written by Comey came to light summarizing a meeting with Trump in January 2017 at which Comey claimed that the president had both sought a pledge of loyalty and indirectly asked him to halt the investigation of Flynn’s activities.

Comey’s description of the encounter (which would be repeated in new testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee in June) sparked concern, even among some members of Trump’s own party, that the president’s actions may have constituted obstruction of justice. Four congressional committees—the Senate and House intelligence committees, the House oversight committee, and the Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism—were actively investigating Russian interference in the election. In the wake of the Comey memo, however, protracted calls by many Democrats and even some Republicans for the appointment of an independent prosecutor or special committee were answered on May 17 by the Justice Department’s appointment of former FBI director Robert Mueller as special counsel to oversee the FBI’s investigation of Russian interference in the election and possible collusion between Russian officials and the Trump campaign.