WASHINGTON â Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he has no immediate plans to resign a day after President Donald Trump excoriated the nationâs top prosecutor for recusing himself from the probe of suspected Russian meddling in the 2016 campaign.
âWe love this job, we love this department and I plan to continue to do so as long as that is appropriate,â he said Thursday.
A former senator from Alabama, Sessions was one of Trumpâs earliest and ardent supporters and became attorney general in February. A month later, he took himself out of a Justice Department-led inquiry into the election following revelations heâd failed to disclose meetings with the Russian ambassador to the U.S.
Trump on Wednesday told The New York Times he never would have tapped Sessions for the job had he known a recusal was coming.
âJeff Sessions takes the job, gets into the job, recuses himself, which frankly I think is very unfair to the president,â Trump told the newspaper. âHow do you take a job and then recuse yourself? If he would have recused himself before the job, I would have said, âThanks, Jeff, but Iâm not going to take you.â Itâs extremely unfair â and thatâs a mild word â to the president.â
Trumpâs blistering rebuke underscored his continuing fury with Sessions more than four months after the recusal and came during an interview in which he also lashed out at Robert Mueller, the special counsel now leading the federal probe; James Comey, the FBI director Trump fired; Andrew McCabe, the acting FBI director who replaced Comey; and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed the special counsel.
Trumpâs denouncement reflected a long-simmering frustration with one of his staunchest allies, but was not a calculated attempt to force Sessions from the Cabinet, according to two Trump advisers. For weeks, the president has seethed about Sessionsâ decision to recuse himself from the federal investigation into whether Trumpâs campaign coordinated with Russia during last yearâs election.
The White House notably made no effort to walk back Trumpâs comments in the interview or display confidence in the attorney general. Instead, the two Trump advisers acknowledged that the presidentâs public comments largely reflected what they have heard him say about Sessions privately.
The advisers spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the presidentâs thinking. The Justice Department declined to comment on the presidentâs remarks.
Sessions, one of Trumpâs earliest supporters, stepped away from the Russia probe following revelations that he had failed to disclose meetings with the Kremlinâs ambassador to the U.S. His decision was made without consulting with the president and essentially paved the way for the appointment of Mueller as special counsel. Muellerâs investigation, along with separate congressional probes, has overshadowed much of Trumpâs agenda and ensnared several of his associates, including son Donald Trump Jr. and his son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner.
Despite his protest to the contrary, Trump continues to heavily watch cable news coverage of the Russia investigations. At times he has told allies heâs convinced that the White House has turned the corner and the controversy will soon be behind him. But at other points, he has expressed fears that it will dog him for his entire time in office.
Few developments in the snowballing controversy have irked Trump more than Sessionsâ decision to recuse himself from the investigations. The advisers said the president viewed the move as an act of disloyalty â arguably the most grievous offense in the presidentâs mind â and was angry that Sessions did not consult with him ahead of time.
At one point, Sessions privately told Trump he was willing to resign his post, but the president did not accept the offer. One adviser said the presidentâs comments to the Times did not reflect any new desire by Trump to fire Sessions, though they acknowledged that the attorney generalâs response to the public denigration was less certain.
Sessions was the first U.S. senator to endorse Trump during the presidential campaign, and the two bonded over their hard-line immigration views. Some of Sessionsâ long-serving advisers are now working alongside the president in the West Wing, including senior policy adviser Stephen Miller, who was one of the architects of Trumpâs controversial travel ban.
A potential Sessions resignation could throw Muellerâs investigation into a state of uncertainty. Trump would nominate a replacement and could seek assurances that his pick would not recuse himself from the investigations.
Trump raised the prospect of firing Mueller in his interview with the Times, suggesting he had damaging information on the former FBI director. The president said Muellerâs selection for the job was a conflict of interest because Trump had spoken with him about returning to the FBI after the firing of James Comey in May.
âThere were many other conflicts that I havenât said, but I will at some point,â Trump said.
He lobbed similar conflict of interest charges at acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. He also accused Comey of briefing him on a dossier of unverified, incriminating information in an effort to gain leverage over the soon-to-be president.
The president has repeatedly told those close to him that he fears there is a movement underway, fueled in part by Comey, Rosenstein and potentially Mueller, to discredit his presidency. He has denied that his campaign had any contacts with Russia during the election, though that assertion has been challenged by his sonâs acknowledgment that he accepted a meeting that was billed as part of the Russian governmentâs efforts to help the Republican win the election.
Copy the Story LinkSend questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Hereâs why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.