Trump again complains about Sessions
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he wished he had chosen another lawyer to be his attorney general, instead of Jeff Sessions, who recused himself from the Russia investigation early in the Trump administration.
But Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, said later that the president would not fire Sessions — at least not before the Russia inquiry has concluded.
“There’s no doubt he’s complained about him; there’s no doubt he has some grievances,” Giuliani told reporters at the White House on Wednesday. “He’s not going to fire him before this is over.”
He added, “Nor do I think he should,” an indication that the prospect has been discussed since he joined the president’s legal team a few weeks ago.
Trump was responding on Twitter to a CBS interview with Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., who had said the president was justified in his frustration because Sessions did not tell Trump he planned to recuse himself.
In the interview Wednesday ,Gowdy said, “There are lots of really good lawyers, he could have picked somebody else.”
“I wish I did!” Trump said in a tweet later.
Since Sessions’ recusal in March 2017, the president has publicly and privately lashed out at him. In recent weeks, Trump has gone so far as to tell people not to raise Sessions’ name with him in conversation. The two men rarely speak outside of Cabinet meetings.
More recently, Trump has joined some of his Republican allies in Congress in its protracted attacks on the Justice Department, this time over congressional requests for some of the FBI’s most closely held secrets.
The quotes by Gowdy that the president highlighted in a series of Twitter posts Wednesday morning appeared to validate Trump’s feelings toward his attorney general.