SESSIONS SAYS HE PLANS TO STAY PUT

WASHINGTON• U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions vowed Thursday to stay in his job, a day after President Donald Trump upbraided him for recusing himself from the Russia investigation.

Asked whether he was considering resigning, Sessions said he and his Justice Department colleagues intended to continue to serve and he would do so “as long as that is appropriate.

“We are serving right now. The work we are doing today is the kind of work that we intend to continue,” he said at a news conference announcing what he described as the dismantling of an online operation that sold narcotics and other illicit goods.

“I am totally confident that we can continue to run this office in an effective way.”

Asked at the White House about Trump’s feelings on Sessions, spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, “Clearly, he has confidence in him or he would not be the attorney general.”

However, Trump’s confidence in Sessions, an early supporter of his during the presidential campaign, has clearly wavered since Sessions recused himself in March from the inquiry amid revelations he failed to disclose contacts with the Russian ambassador. That placed the investigation with his deputy Rod Rosenstein, who in May appointed former FBI director Robert Mueller to serve as special counsel.

Sessions offered to resign this spring as his relationship with the president grew tense, but Trump turned him down.

But Trump said in an interview with The New York Times Wednesday he never would have nominated Sessions had he known he would recuse himself from overseeing the investigation into possible ties between Russia and the Trump campaign, an inquiry that has dogged Trump’s presidency.

“Jeff Sessions takes the job, gets into the job, recuses himself, which frankly I think is very unfair to the president,” Trump said. “How do you take a job and then recuse yourself ? If he would have recused himself before the job, I would have said, ‘ Thanks, Jeff, but I’m not going to take you.’ It’s extremely unfair — and that’s a mild word — to the president.”

Trump also aimed his criticism at Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, who said Thursday he was committed to his work, offering no indication he was considering resigning.

Rosentein’s appointment of Mueller was said to have taken both Trump and Sessions by surprise.

In the interview, Trump complained Rosenstein had played both sides when it came to the firing of former FBI director James Comey. Rosen stein had recommended the dismissal, but then appointed Mueller, who may be investigating whether Trump obstructed justice by firing Comey.