The Province

Sessions walks the plank

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WASHINGTON — Attorney General Jeff Sessions was pushed out Wednesday as the country’s chief law enforcemen­t officer after enduring more than a year of blistering and personal attacks from President Donald Trump over his recusal from the Russia investigat­ion.

Sessions told the president in a onepage letter that he was submitting his resignatio­n “at your request.”

Trump announced in a tweet that he was naming Sessions’ chief of staff, Matthew Whitaker, a former U.S. attorney from Iowa, as acting attorney general. Mueller ripped

Whitaker has criticized special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigat­ion into potential coordinati­on between the president’s Republican campaign and Russia.

The resignatio­n was the culminatio­n of a toxic relationsh­ip that frayed just weeks into the AG’s tumultuous tenure, when he stepped aside from the Mueller investigat­ion.

Trump blamed the decision for opening the door to the appointmen­t of Mueller, who took over the Russia investigat­ion and began examining whether Trump’s hectoring of Sessions was part of a broader effort to obstruct justice and stymie the probe.

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