Trump humiliated Sessions after pick of special counsel

WASHINGTON — Shortly after learning in May that a special counsel had been appointed to investigate links between his campaign associates and Russia, President Trump berated Attorney General Jeff Sessions in an Oval Office meeting and said the attorney general should resign, according to current and former administration officials and others briefed on the matter.

The president blamed the appointment of the special counsel, Robert Mueller, on Sessions’ decision to recuse himself from the Justice Department’s Russia investigation — a move Trump believes was the moment his administration effectively lost control over the inquiry. Accusing Sessions of disloyalty, Trump unleashed a string of insults on his attorney general.

Ashen and emotional, Sessions told the president he would quit and sent a resignation letter to the White House, according to four people who were told details of the meeting. Sessions would later tell associates that the demeaning way the president addressed him was the most humiliating experience in decades of public life.

The Oval Office meeting, details of which have not previously been reported, shows the intensity of Trump’s emotions as the Russia investigation gained steam and how he appeared to immediately see Mueller’s appointment as a looming problem for his administration. It also illustrates the depth of antipathy Trump has had for Sessions — one of his earliest campaign supporters — and how the president interprets “disloyalty” within his circle of advisers.

Trump ended up rejecting Sessions’ May resignation letter after senior members of his administration argued that dismissing the attorney general would only create more problems for a president who had already fired an FBI director and a national security adviser. Trump once again, in July, told aides he wanted to remove Sessions, but for a second time didn’t take action.

The relationship between the two men has improved marginally since midsummer, as Sessions has made a public display of hunting for the leakers among the administration’s national security officials. His allies said that despite the humiliation, the attorney general has stayed in the job because he sees a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity as the nation’s top law enforcement official to toughen the country’s immigration policies.

This account is based on interviews with seven administration officials and others familiar with the interactions between Trump and Sessions in recent months who requested anonymity because they are not permitted to speak publicly about confidential conversations between the president and his aides.