During a Thursday report, Rachel Maddow listed out all of the cases in which Attorney General Jeff Sessions hasn't recused himself from anything Russia related, despite his promise to do so.
First, Maddow noted that the firings of former FBI director James Comey and former deputy assistant director Andrew McCabe did have something to do with the Russia investigation. In the case of Comey, President Donald Trump revealed his true motivations to NBC's Lester Holt. McCabe was conducting an investigation into Sessions for the firing of Comey when he was fired.
Second, it was revealed Thursday that special counsel Robert Mueller is now looking into two key Republicans, Trump's former deputy chief of staff Rick Dearborn and former Trump campaign policy director John Mashburn. The only place that Mashburn's name has popped up, according to Maddow, is when it came to a strange incident at the Republican National Convention. It isn't clear whether it was Mashburn or any other prominent member of the Republican National Committee, who demanded the party's platform take a lighter stance against Russia in the battle for Ukraine. Mueller's court documents detailed that he's asking the two men specifically about the RNC.
That same report about Mashburn and Dearborn also included a note that Mueller is examining two specific meetings that occurred where Sessions was present.
"Mueller’s team has been asking about a convention-related event attended by both Russia’s U.S. ambassador and Jeff Sessions, the first U.S. senator to support Trump and now his attorney general, said one source, who requested anonymity due to the ongoing investigation," Reuters reported Thursday.
The report continued, citing a source who has been questioned by Mueller noted investigators have asked specific questions about conversations that Sessions had with fromer Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergei Kislyak. The source also explained that the questions have been about whether or not Sessions had conversations with Kislyak during the RNC or during a campaign speech at the Mayflower Hotel in 2016 where videos show Sessions near Kislyak.
"If this new reporting is correct, this means a couple things," Maddow began. "First, and most importantly, it means that in current inquiries by the special counsel's office, what they are asking witnesses about now is about the central matter under investigation. It's not just obstruction of justice. They are asking about the question of contacts with and potentially collusion with Russia."
What it says about Sessions, however, is more shocking, she claimed.
"Anybody will be alarmed by these reports about what Mueller is asking witnesses about now," she continued. "Hey! That's the attorney general you're talking about there! The currently serving attorney general of the United States is the subject of active inquiries in the Mueller investigation on multiple fronts while he's serving as attorney general which involves him setting up multiple inquiries and whether or not the FBI should have been investigating the Russia matter at all and whether they have been too bias in favor of Hillary Clinton. He's the subject of inquiries by the Mueller investigation, meanwhile sicking these two investigators on the Russia investigation? This is a rat's nest, and boy, does that recusal seem to be sagging under its weight these days."
Watch the Maddow clip below:
