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While Attorney General Jeff Session announced that he would be recusing himself from having any hand in the FBI’s investigation into Russian election meddling Thursday afternoon, Congressional Democrats were calling for his resignation with claims he committed perjury in lying to the Senate. During CNN’s The Lead, host Jake Tapper appeared to presume Sessions’ guilt, stating, “This is in many ways a brand-new breaking news story, in other ways, it is the oldest story in Washington.”
“It's not really what you did so much necessarily as the cover up or the refusal to be completely forthcoming with all the information,” he explained to Dan Balz of The Washington Post. “Do you think Senator Sessions-- Attorney General Sessions has the support in the White House at least right now to last,” Tapper asked, seeming to assume there was something to the allegations.
He asked something similar to CNN legal analyst Laura Coates, “My understanding is that perjury is very, very difficult to prove even though we’ve heard lots of rhetoric today about whether or not then-Senator now-Attorney General Sessions committed perjury. Do you think his step to recuse himself from this matter is going to put an end to that?”
Coates explained that, during Sessions’ press conference where he elaborated on his two interactions with the Russian ambassador, he was been very cautious with his words. “Clearly his statements today were very, very careful to parse words, be very deliberate in his comments to ensure that he was not showing or conveying any intent to mislead and just a basic lost in translation moment,” she said
