On Friday, US Attorney General Jeff Sessions said that his own Justice Department would be a fair game for criticism in the midst of the recent Republican complaints of anti-Trump bias in the FBI. Jeff Sessions made this comments as he addressed law enforcement officials in Norfolk, Virginia. He said that his Justice Department’s mission is to identify and rectify “mistakes of the past” and do away with political bias in either direction from its prosecutions and investigations, suggesting that that has not always been the case. He said that his fundamental mission is to protect the safety of Americans with integrity and fairness.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ comments have come at a time when congressional Republicans point to what they see as signs of political bias in the FBI, such as the anti-Trump text messages between an FBI lawyer and a counterintelligence agent who was removed from the special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. The congressional Republicans have also alleged that there is misconduct and bias in the management of the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server, one that ended in no criminal charges.
Democrats, on the other hand, insist that this is a ploy to discredit Mueller’s investigation into the probable obstruction of justice and involvement between the Trump campaign and Russia in altering the 2016 presidential election. Attorney General Sessions did not mention these cases bluntly, or what he was referring to. He only said that he does not see criticism from Congress as a bad thing – that when people learn of a problem and start asking questions, it is a good thing. He said that a culture of defensiveness is unacceptable. Instead of being defensive, he added that the Justice Department would hear concerns and act on them professionally, fairly and completely to keep the public’s trust. He also added that the Justice Department doesn’t always know what is best as it is not perfect.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions has been criticized time and again for not publically defending the Justice Department against the attacks from President Donald Trump. Despite this, he has promised action against all employees of the Justice Department who fail to meet its “highest level of integrity, ethics, and professionalism”. He also pledged to defend those employees who are unfairly accused. He said that figuratively that sunlight is the best disinfectant. That truth produces confidence.
