Trump had to be talked out of firing Sessions over his recusal back in May

New York Times reporters Michael Schmidt and Maggie Haberman have been doing terrific investigative journalism on Trump and his campaign.  This week they have revealed what sources have told them about an Oval Office meeting in May, in which President Trump "unleashed a string of insults" on his Attorney General Jeff Sessions for recusing himself from overseeing investigation of Russia's interference in our election process and whether there was any collusion from the Trump campaign.

Now, let's take note that Sessions really had no choice and was told so by advisers.  Had he not recused, with his history of having lied about his own meetings with the Russian ambassador, it would have become an ethics case on top of all else.  But, to Trump, it meant only that Sessions was disloyal to him and that, as he put it at one point, that his administration had "lost control of the investigation."  He saw the role of the AG as being to protect him from, apparently, even his own crimes.

The Times article is based on interviews with seven "administration officials and others" with knowledge of interactions between Trump and Sessions since that time.

Present in the meeting were Trump, VP Pence, AG Sessions, U.S. Counsel Don McGahan and others.   During the meeting, McGahan took a phone call from Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein, who was informing him that he had decided to appoint Bob Mueller as special counsel to take over the investigation, following Trump's firing of FBI Director James Comey, who had been conducting it.

We had known, of course, that Trump had fired Comey in order to try to stop this very investigation, among other stated reasons.   So, upon hearing in the May meeting that, rather than stop the investigation, it now was to be led by the man who would be at the top of any list for integrity and expertise -- Trump was furious.   And he aimed that fury straight at Sessions.

According to this account, Trump accused Sessions of "disloyalty," saying that it was Sessions fault "that we're in this situation," that appointing him as AG was one of the worst decisions he had made, and calling Sessions an "idiot."   Further, he said that Sessions should resign.   Emotionally shaken and "ashen," Sessions said he would resign and left the office.   That night he submitted his letter of resignation.

But Trump's advisers Mike Pence, Reince Priebus, and Steve Bannon finally prevailed on Trump not to accept the resignation, arguing that it would only sow more chaos in the administration and turn Republicans in Congress against him, given the relationships Sessions had built up there over his decades as a senator.

Trump ultimately contained his anger and declined to accept Sessions' resignation.  But he has continued to take swipes at Sessions, to thwart him and contradict him in public.   So that's the inside story, apparently, of what we only saw bits and pieces of from the outside.   There was no secret that Trump had been both surprised and unhappy when Sessions had recused himself some time before.  And Trump made that comment about how it was "unfair to the president" and that, had he known Pence was going to recuse, as he did shortly after taking office, he would never have appointed him.

So, let's look at what this means.   What is new in what we now know is primarily the degree of Trump's fury on finding out he was going to face investigation after all.  In essence, he thought he had jumped out of the frying pan by firing Comey, and now he finds out he had jumped directly into the fire.   And it's his own fault.  Regardless of what will be found in the investigation, it was his firing of Comey that led directly to the appointment of Mueller -- who, by the way, is more formidable than Comey by a good bit.

This all smacks of the behavior of a man who knows he's guilty and who is desperate and running out of tricks to derail his own downfall.

Meanwhile, hardly a day goes by without some new assumption becoming clear about where the investigation is going.   Not so much from leaks but from simply observing who is being listed or called upon to supply information or to be interviewed by the investigative team.

What we are learning is that Mueller is already reaching into the White House staff.   Six people have been listed as people he wants to interview:   Reince Preibus, Sean Spicer, Hope Hicks, plus three others who are less publicly known but who were likely in positions know what was going on.

Mueller is obviously looking at the Trump Tower meeting with the Russian lawyer.  One of the Russians in that meeting has already been interviewed.   Don, Jr. has been interviewed by the staff of the Senate Judiciary Committee.  Mueller is also looking at the crafting of the letter about the content of that meeting, which Trump himself reportedly dictated.  He's looking into the Comey firing, the Sessions "resignation" -- and the inside discussions about all of that.

In addition, Mike Flynn's son, who was also his chief of staff in his business during the time Flynn was National Security Adviser, is now listed as a "subject" of the investigation.   He must have known about his father's business dealings with these foreign governments.  As I remember from the transition period, when he misrepresented himself as actually being on the White House transition staff, there was talk about that not being possible because he couldn't get a security clearance.

What a tangled pile of linguini.   If anyone can figure it all out, Bob Mueller is the one.   Donald Trump has reason to be frightened.

Ralph