Love him or hate him, Jeff Sessions is why Mueller's Russia probe is still on track Thank Jeff Sessions, Rod Rosenstein and Robert Mueller for running Justice and the Russia probe by the book despite extreme pressure from Donald Trump.

Cameron Smith and Norman Eisen | Opinion contributors

Show Caption Hide Caption Jeff Sessions: Here's what I'll do if Trump fires Rosenstein Attorney General Jeff Sessions told the White House last weekend that if President Donald Trump fires Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, Sessions himself may quit.

One of us is a supporter of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and a former aide to him. The other has been a critic of many of his positions. Yet we agree that thanks to his leadership, the Justice Department has operated as it should when it comes to the Trump-Russia investigation and its offshoots.

Last week was one of the most remarkable in the department’s history. It began with the risk of mass firings by President Trump to thwart the investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller. It included the spectacle in New York federal court of his personal lawyers fighting with Justice lawyers about documents that might (or might not) implicate Trump in wrongdoing. It ended with Congress demanding and immediately leaking heretofore sacrosanct investigative documents (the “Comey memos”) and reports that Sessions warned the White House he would resign should Trump attempt to fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein (who oversees the Mueller investigation).

We are relieved — and a little amazed — that the Justice Department endured these challenges.

Sessions, Rosenstein and Mueller still have their jobs despite the reported presidential threats. Surely the attorney general’s courageous stand helped. We were impressed, too, with the courteous but tough way the department lawyers pressed their case against the president’s personal lawyer for documents that include communications about Trump, despite the known anger of the president, their ultimate boss. Rosenstein and his team even found a way to produce the Comey memos with sufficient redactions to protect sensitive information.

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All of this is no anomaly. With the day-to-day chaos of news cycles, it’s easy to lose sight of the Justice Department’s consistency over the past year regarding the Russia probe.

It begins with Sessions’ recusal from matters related to the Trump campaign. That wasn’t a close call from a legal and ethical standpoint. Sessions faced a clear conflict that met the standards for stepping away. Sessions surely knew he would face presidential rage; news reports suggest that the White House counsel even tried to talk him out of it. Yet he did it anyhow, a decision that remains the original sin in Trump’s eyes, both because Sessions failed to protect him and because that recusal opened the door to the appointment of a special counsel.

Rosenstein’s choice of Mueller for that role was perfectly reasonable as well. Rosenstein chose an eminently qualified special counsel with a clear goal — to investigate “any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump.” The appointment also authorized Mueller “to prosecute federal crimes arising from the investigation” that he believes are “necessary and appropriate.”

Mueller has done so without fear or favor, racking up plea agreements from former Trump deputy campaign chairman Rick Gates, former national security adviser Michael Flynn, Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos and others.

As to Russian interference in the 2016 election, Mueller has indicted 13 Russians and three Russian entities on a variety of offenses. Those charges aren’t for show, and they certainly aren’t the fruits of a witch hunt.

But Mueller has not, despite opportunities, overreached — more proof of the Justice Department’s fealty to law in this investigation. For instance, instead of grabbing for the investigation of Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, he referred the matter to federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York U.S. attorney’s office. They not only determined that enough evidence existed for a search warrant, but also that it necessitated a search of an attorney’s office for privileged information. That’s an exceedingly rare decision that demands heavy scrutiny in any case. Again, this isn’t some rogue operation; given Cohen’s proximity to Trump, the justification for the raid is compelling.

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As all of this transpired, Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz issued a report that justified firing former Deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe. While Trump’s critics suggested that McCabe’s firing was some sort of political execution, Horowitz investigated the matter and provided a detailed analysis of McCabe’s conduct. One may agree or disagree with the report, but it is further evidence that Justice is credibly investigating claims of corruption and misconduct and acting accordingly.

Along the way, when Republicans in Congress have pressured Sessions to appoint additional special counsels to investigate a wide range of matters, he has calmly reminded the legislative branch of the “extraordinary conditions” necessary to warrant such appointments. As a measure of prudence in applying the rule of law equitably, Sessions enlisted U.S. Attorney for Utah John Huber to coordinate with Horowitz in determining whether allegations of misconduct at the department merit further investigation. Huber happens to be an Obama appointee who was renominated by Trump and has a strong reputation as an excellent prosecutor.

We have no way of predicting whether this trend will continue. The top leadership of the Justice Department might not make it through this week. The president might try to fire or pardon his way out of any exposure in the Russia or Cohen investigations. Or House Republican leaders may devise some new test for Rosenstein and the department that they cannot pass.

Even so, we take some hope in studying the pattern. America’s answer to the passionate discord of political ideology is a shared faith in the rule of law. When our personal viewpoints clash, the dispassionate enforcement of our laws steadies our republic.

For whatever disagreements we may have on policy preferences, we must applaud Sessions, Rosenstein, Mueller and the Justice Department for taking a practical approach to the law in spite of tremendous political pressure to do it violence.

Cameron Smith, general counsel and vice president for the R Street Institute, was counsel to Jeff Sessions on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Norman Eisen, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and chair of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, was President Obama's ethics czar from 2009 to 2011. Follow them on Twitter: @DCameronSmith and @NormEisen.