Trump complains he has ‘no attorney general’ in attack on Jeff Sessions

President rips AG, says ‘it’s very sad’

President Donald Trump has a new line of attack in his war on his own top law enforcement official, telling The Hill that he feels he doesn’t “have an attorney general.”

Mr. Trump has long criticized Attorney General Jeff Sessions over the former Alabama senator recusing himself from the federal probe into Russian election meddling, but went further in an interview with The Hill.

“I don’t have an attorney general. It’s very sad,” Mr. Trump told the site in an Oval Office interview published early Wednesday.

“I’m not happy at the border, I’m not happy with numerous things, not just this,” he added.

Mr. Trump recently unleashed a series of broadsides against Mr. Sessions over the Justice Department indicting a pair of Republican lawmakers who were among his earliest supporters in Congress.

He also lamented last month that Mr. Sessions “never took control” of the Justice Department, a claim which led his attorney general to issue a rare rebuke of the president’s complaints.

“While I am Attorney General, the actions of the Department of Justice will not be improperly influenced by political considerations,” Mr. Sessions said in a statement.

Mr. Trump suggested to The Hill that he had a blind spot when it came to Mr. Sessions.

“I’m so sad over Jeff Sessions because he came to me. He was the first senator that endorsed me. And he wanted to be attorney general, and I didn’t see it,” he said.

In the past two years, Mr. Trump has labeled Mr. Sessions as “beleaguered,” “very weak” and “disgraceful.” He has also had to push back against reports that he referred to his attorney general as “Mr. Magoo” and called him “mentally retarded.”

Mr. Trump also told The Hill that he recently ordered the release of classified documents related to the Russia investigation in order to show the public that the probe is a “hoax” and claimed that exposing bias in the FBI could be one of his administration’s “crowning achievements.”

“What we’ve done is a great service to the country, really,” Mr. Trump said.

“I hope to be able to call this, along with tax cuts and regulation and all the things I’ve done … in its own way this might be the most important thing because this was corrupt,” he said.

Mr. Trump has repeatedly labeled the special counsel investigation run by Robert Mueller a “witch hunt” and a “hoax,” claiming that political bias in the ranks of the FBI and the Justice Department sparked the probe.

“I hope to be able to put this up as one of my crowning achievements that I was able to … expose something that is truly a cancer in our country,” Mr. Trump said.