Tag: Jeff Sessions

Matt McCoy, who has served in the Iowa Senate for more than 20 years, claims Whitaker targeted him years ago because he was a Democrat and openly gay. At the same time, Whitaker was the young, conservative, Republican U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Iowa. McCoy said it was a $2,000 business dispute with a private consulting client who wouldn't pay a bill. "I believe it was a political prosecution, there’s no doubt in my mind, I’m 100 percent certain that it was,” McCoy said. Whitaker was criticized heavily in Iowa's press, with reporters questioning why McCoy was prosecuted and legendary Des Moines Register editor Gil Cranberg asking if Whitaker’s case was "misplaced zeal or partisan politicking?" He tried and failed to become an Iowa Supreme Court justice, he failed in a run for Senate and he seemed to have limited success in private practice. FACT went after dozens of Democrats, Democratic organizations and especially Hillary Clinton. They filed ethics complaints, federal election commission complaints, anything they could to legally hamstring Democrats. "I think when you're looking at an organization that is focused almost exclusively on investigating individuals of one party and one political persuasion, and that the head of that organization is now going to be installed as the attorney general of the entire United States, that sets off a number of alarm bells,” said Sarah Turberville, director of The Constitution Project at the Project on Government Oversight. The Justice Department defended Whitaker’s decision to prosecute McCoy in a statement late Friday.

Democrats took the House, and Republicans got a stronger hold on the Senate: • The midterm elections ended Tuesday night with Democrats flipping more than two dozen Republican congressional districts to gain control of the House of Representatives. Read what the results tell us about the state of the nation. Some races — like in Florida and Georgia — are still undecided: • Election Day may be over, but there are several pivotal races across the country whose outcomes are still in doubt. • Brian Kemp, the Republican candidate for governor of Georgia, currently has 50.3 percent of the vote. If remaining ballots push that below 50 percent, the race will be decided by a runoff. Read about the women who led a parade of victories Tuesday to win control of the House for the Democrats. Read about his involvement. Mr. Trump said on Friday that he has not yet spoken to Mr. Whitaker about the special counsel investigation, and he distanced himself from the acting attorney general by suggesting that he did not know him. Additional Reading • Acting Attorney General Matthew G. Whitaker Once Criticized Supreme Court’s Power • Jeff Sessions Executed the Agenda of a President Who Could Not Look Past a Betrayal • Sessions, in Last-Minute Act, Sharply Limits Use of Consent Decrees to Curb Police Abuses Here’s what else happened this week. Mr. Trump said he would not meet with President Vladimir Putin of Russia this weekend.

Democrats are set to take control of the House, powered by a triumphant left, while the remaining House Republicans and the larger Republican majority in the Senate will be Trumpier than ever. Then comes an indirect consequence: the behavior of President Donald Trump. But those powers are set to be checked as never before in this presidency. The news that Attorney General Jeff Sessions had been forced to step down triggered fast and furious statements from some Democratic leaders saying that if the president were to also fire special counsel Robert Mueller, it would be considered obstruction of justice and an impeachable offense. Expect work on health care, renewable energy and maybe more gun control. The TIP with John Verhovek While there are still nine House races not yet projected by ABC News, the current make-up of the 2018 Democratic majority tells us a lot about the state of America's political geography. Another factoid: Of the 31 seats Democrats have flipped thus far, none gave Donald Trump more than 55 percent of the vote in 2016. https://bit.ly/2M7OS5c FiveThirtyEight Politics Podcast: What the Midterms Taught Us About America. ET on ABC. The Note is a daily ABC News feature that highlights political analysis of the day ahead.

In the course of one afternoon, President Donald Trump essentially took control of the Russia investigation. What does that mean going forward? SOURCES AND FURTHER READING: ICYMI: Sessions is out https://cnn.it/2D7CAUy Who’s the boss? https://cnn.it/2qEZnzIl And what does this mean…

The president rejects calls for the acting attorney general to recuse himself from overseeing the Russia probe over comments he made in 2017 about the Mueller investigation. FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour all-encompassing news service dedicated to delivering…

California Democrat Rep. Jackie Speier, a member of the House Intelligence Committee discusses Trump firing Attorney General Jeff Sessions & what that means for Mueller's investigation. » Subscribe to MSNBC: http://on.msnbc.com/SubscribeTomsnbc About: MSNBC is the premier destination for in-depth analysis…

Good Thursday morning. Here are some of the stories making news in Washington and politics today. _____________________ • President Trump forced out Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Wednesday, ending a partnership that soured almost from the start, in part because of Mr. Sessions’s recusal from the Russia inquiry. Here’s what the shake-up means. • Mr. Trump offered to work with the Democrats who gained control of the House, but threatened to retaliate if they use their new power to investigate him. • A cascade of contradictory verdicts in the midterm elections added up to a portrait of a nation at odds with itself. Here’s what the results tell us. Read more on the president’s surprising support. • Mr. Trump said he would not meet with President Vladimir Putin of Russia this weekend. After weeks of conflicting reports on the on-again, off-again plans, Mr. Trump says they will meet instead in Buenos Aires later in the month.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham dismisses fears that Jeff Sessions' resignation as attorney general will trigger a constitutional crisis. FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour all-encompassing news service dedicated to delivering breaking news as well as political and business news.…

Daily Beast’s Sam Stein, Move On’s Karine Jean-Pierre, AP’s Jonathan Lemire, and NYT’s Nick Confessore on the new Daily Beast report indicating Matt Whitaker previously made up his mind about the Mueller investigation before taking over for Jeff Sessions »…

Official says there is no timeline to identify President Trump's nominee to be the next attorney general as Senator Lindsey Graham and Chris Christie both pay visits to the White House; Blake Burman reports from the White House. FOX News…