House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) and former Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) turned on Attorney General Jeff Sessions in an op-ed published Thursday in the Washington Examiner. The two lawmakers urged him to resign from his post because “he has no control at all of the premier law enforcement agency in the world.”
In their scathing piece, two of the House’s most conservative members blasted President Donald Trump’s attorney general for failing to stem the flow of illegal leaks that plagued the Justice Department throughout 2017 and fueled the media’s Trump-Russia collusion frenzy. The lawmakers argued that the steady flow of leaks from the Justice Department and the “manufactured hysteria” it produced “frequently masked the substantial accomplishments of President Trump’s administration.”
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“Attorney General Jeff Sessions has recused himself from the Russia investigation, but it would appear he has no control at all of the premier law enforcement agency in the world,” Meadows and Jordan wrote. “It is time for Sessions to start managing in a spirit of transparency to bring all of this improper behavior to light and stop further violations.”
“If Sessions can’t address this issue immediately, then we have one final question needing an answer: When is it time for a new attorney general? Sadly, it seems the answer is now,” the congressmen bluntly concluded.
Meadows and Jordan said the DOJ leaks fueling the Russia-collusion narrative “dominated the headlines of almost every news agency” and overshadowed the Trump administration’s “historic” accomplishments. Despite the six different investigations spent analyzing the collusion narrative, the congressmen said there is “zero” evidence of collusion.
“The alarming number of FBI agents and DOJ officials sharing information with reporters is in clear violation of investigative standards … “
The two House Freedom Caucus leaders also took particular issue with a New York Times article published last week that relied upon four current and former intelligence officials. The officials claimed former Trump campaign volunteer George Papadopoulos was a “driving factor” in the creation of the Russia probe.
“The alarming number of FBI agents and DOJ officials sharing information with reporters is in clear violation of the investigative standards that Americans expect and should demand,” the congressmen wrote. “How would New York Times reporters know any of this information when the FBI and DOJ are prohibited from talking about ongoing investigations?”
Related: Nunes: DOJ Will Comply with Committee’s Trump-Russia Requests
“How many FBI agents and DOJ officials have illegally discussed aspects of an ongoing investigation with reporters? When will it stop?” Meadows and Jordan wrote, adding, “It is time for this practice to come to an immediate end.”
Because the leaking didn’t end when Sessions took the helm of the Department of Justice in 2017, Meadows and Jordan said it was time for him to resign.
Before serving as attorney general, Sessions served as a U.S. senator from Alabama for 20 years. He was regarded widely as one of the Senate’s most conservative members.
PoliZette writer Kathryn Blackhurst can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter.
(photo credit, homepage image: Jim Jordan, Jeff Sessions, Mark Meadows, cut out, CC BY-SA 2.0, by Gage Skidmore)
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