Conservative Republican Reps. Mark Meadows (N.C.) and Jim Jordan (Ohio) are calling on Attorney General Jeff Sessions to step down, citing recent leaks from the Justice Department and FBI.
“If Sessions can’t address this issue immediately, then we have one final question needing an answer: When is it time for a new attorney general?” the two GOP lawmakers asked in an op-ed for The Washington Examiner.
“Sadly, it seems the answer is now,” they continued.
“It would appear he has no control at all of the premier law enforcement agency in the world.”
The lawmakers went on to cite a New York Times story, published last week, that referenced intelligence community sources as saying a meeting between former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos and an Australian diplomat kick-started special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia’s efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election.
Republicans have long argued the unverified dossier compiled by former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele led to the probe.
President Trump and Republicans have said the probe is politically motivated.
Meadows and Jordan, the chairman and former chairman, respectively, of the House Freedom Caucus, have been two of the more vocal Republican voices to criticize Mueller’s probe into Russian election meddling.
House Republicans have pounced on leaked text messages critical of Trump sent between FBI employees Peter Stzrok and Lisa Page during the 2016 campaign. Critics argued the texts were evidence of anti-Trump bias on the Mueller team.
Strzok was reassigned from the Mueller probe after the messages were revealed.