ATTORNEY GENERAL/FBI/JEFF SESSIONS/ROBERT MUELLER: “Attorney General Jeff Sessions gave a vote of confidence Friday [6-29-17] to former FBI director Robert Mueller, the special counsel leading an investigation into potential coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign, but he also said he hoped the investigation could ‘move forward and come to an end sooner rather than later.’
The attorney general’s comments during a ‘Fox & Friends’ interview were his most expansive to date on the Justice Department’s appointment last month of Mueller to run the investigation.
‘Mr. Mueller is someone I’ve known a long time, and I’ve had confidence in him over the years,’ said Sessions, an Alabama Republican who served for years on the Senate Judiciary Committee, the panel that oversees the FBI.
Those remarks stand in contrast to a drumbeat of Republican criticism of the special counsel’s investigation, including from President Donald Trump, who on the same show last week contended that Mueller was ‘very, very good friends’ with fired FBI director James Comey and characterized that relationship as ‘very bothersome.’ Republicans have also raised conflict-of-interest concerns by noting that some lawyers on Mueller’s investigative team have previously contributed to Democratic candidates, though federal law and department policy does not permit the special counsel to take into consideration the political affiliations of a potential hire.”
-Eric Tucker, “Sessions hopes Russia probe ends ‘sooner rather than later’,” The Washington Post online, June 30, 2017 11:56am