JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/NOMINATIONS/RUSSIA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump’s nominee for a top Justice Department post defended his work for a Russian bank Tuesday [7-25-17] and he said Mr. Trump’s tweets attacking Attorney General Jeff Sessions were ‘difficult’ for him to hear.
Brian Benczkowski, a lawyer who served in the George W. Bush Justice Department, appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is considering his nomination to run the department’s criminal division. The division handles some of the department’s highest-profile fraud, public corruption and cybercrime cases.
Mr. Benczkowski, who has never worked as a line prosecutor, fielded questions about whether his experience qualified him to run the division.
But given Mr. Benczkowski’s ties to a Russian bank, lawmakers focused most of their questions on how the nominee would handle any investigations into Moscow’s meddling in the 2016 election. Special Counsel Robert Mueller is investigating that interference and whether there was any coordination between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign.”
-Del Quentin Wilber and Aruna Viswanatha, “Trump Nominee for Justice Post Defends His Work for Russian Bank,” The Wall Street Journal online, July 25, 2017 3:43pm