The Atlantic

Trump Wants Sessions to Investigate ‘Anonymous.’ But There Was No Crime.

The president has asked the attorney general to conduct a criminal investigation aimed at finding the anonymous senior official who wrote a highly critical op-ed in <em>The New York Times</em>.&nbsp; &nbsp;
Source: Kevin Lamarque / Reuters

President Trump wants Attorney General Jeff Sessions to launch an investigation into which senior administration official anonymously authored an explosive New York Times op-ed, published earlier this week, that questioned his fitness to serve and revealed that aides have been secretly thwarting his more dangerous impulses. “I would say Jeff should be investigating who the author of that piece was,” Trump told reporters on Friday. “Because I really believe it’s national security.”

There’s only one problem: No obvious crime was committed that would warrant a Justice Department investigation. “On its face, I don’t see anything in that op-ed that would serve as a basis to conduct a criminal investigation,” said David Laufman, a former high-ranking Department of Justice official who served as the chief of the Counterintelligence and

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