Republican senator stands up to Donald Trump over Jeff Sessions and the Justice Department

Nebraska senator and longtime Trump critic slams the president over his attacks on the Justice Department

By Matthew Rozsa

Staff Writer

Published September 4, 2018 9:15AM (EDT)

Ben Sasse; Donald Trump (AP/Getty/Salon)
Ben Sasse; Donald Trump (AP/Getty/Salon)

Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., has released a statement criticizing President Donald Trump for his recent Twitter rant excoriating the Justice Department for pursuing prosecutions against two Republican congressmen who have been longtime supporters of the president.

"The United States is not some banana republic with a two-tiered system of justice – one for the majority party and one for the minority party," Sasse explained, according to USA Today. "These two men have been charged with crimes because of evidence, not because of who the President was when the investigations began. Instead of commenting on ongoing investigations and prosecutions, the job of the President of the United States is to defend the Constitution and protect the impartial administration of justice."

In his tweets, Trump had depicted the criminal cases against Rep. Chris Collins of New York and Rep. Duncan Hunter of California, both Republicans, in terms that appeared focused on their loyalty to him and their political popularity, rather than on their potential guilt or innocence.

"Two long running, Obama era, investigations of two very popular Republican Congressmen were brought to a well publicized charge, just ahead of the Mid-Terms, by the Jeff Sessions Justice Department. Two easy wins now in doubt because there is not enough time. Good job Jeff......" Trump wrote in his first tweet.

He added in a second tweet, "The Democrats, none of whom voted for Jeff Sessions, must love him now. Same thing with Lyin’ James Comey. The Dems all hated him, wanted him out, thought he was disgusting - UNTIL I FIRED HIM! Immediately he became a wonderful man, a saint like figure in fact. Really sick!"

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Collins, who represents a district in western New York state, is accused of having been involved in an insider trading scheme after receiving information about an Australian pharmaceutical company, Innate Immunotherapeutics Limited, in which he was a major investor. According to the charges, Collins "violated the duties he owed to Innate by passing material, nonpublic information regarding the drug trial results to his son, Cameron Collins, the defendant, so that Cameron Collins could use that information to make timely trades in Innate stock and tip others."

Hunter, who represents a heavily Republican district in the San Diego suburbs, was accused along with his wife of a number of financial crimes, including wire fraud, campaign finance violations, falsifying records and conspiracy. The indictment argued that the Hunters, who were spending significantly more on personal expenses than they were earning, "knew that many of their desired purchases could only be made by using Campaign funds."

While it's unusual for a sitting president to criticize his own Justice Department — and it might be politically toxic for any other president to do so in defense of his own supporters — Trump has long been critical of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, due to the latter's 2017 decision to recuse himself from the ongoing investigation into the Trump campaign's Russian connections. On a number of occasions, Trump has expressed his rage at the perceived weakness and disloyalty of the former Alabama senator who was one of his first prominent supporters during the 2016 presidential campaign.

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By Matthew Rozsa

Matthew Rozsa is a staff writer at Salon. He received a Master's Degree in History from Rutgers-Newark in 2012 and was awarded a science journalism fellowship from the Metcalf Institute in 2022.

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