Jeff Sessions pushed out after a year of attacks by Trump
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions resigned at the request of President Donald Trump in a move that raised questions about the fate of the Justice Department probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election
ATTORNEY General Jeff Sessions was pushed out Wednesday after enduring more than a year of blistering and personal attacks from President Donald Trump, who inserted in his place a Republican Party loyalist with authority to oversee the remainder of the special counsel’s Russia investigation.
Sessions’ resignation ends his service in the Trump administration, which started off glowingly but devolved into discord after he recused himself from overseeing the probe because of his participation in Trump’s campaign. Trump blamed the recusal for the appointment of Mueller, who took over the Russia investigation two months later and began examining whether Trump’s hectoring of Sessions was part of a broader effort to obstruct the probe. The investigation has so far produced 32 criminal charges and guilty pleas from four former Trump aides. But the work is not done and critical decisions await that could shape the remainder of Trump’s presidency. The president, who has called the probe a “witch hunt,” repeatedly vented his anger over Sessions on Twitter and in public comments, prompting speculation that Sessions’ tenure would be ending soon.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin said yesterday that the Washington investigation into alleged interference by Moscow in the 2016 U.S. election was not Russia’s problem. “This investigation is a headache for our American colleagues, it has nothing to do with us,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists when asked if Session’s firing would influence the probe by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Moscow has repeatedly denied accusations it attempted to influence the vote that elevated Trump to the White House.
The broadsides escalated in recent months, with Trump telling an interviewer that Sessions “never had control” of the Jus- tice Department. Sessions endured most of the name-calling in silence, though he did issue two public statements defending the department, including one in which he said he would serve “with integrity and honor” for as long as he was in the job.
The resignation, in a one-page letter to Trump, came one day after Republicans lost control of the House of Representatives and was the first of several expected post-midterms Cabinet and White House departures. Though Sessions was an early and prominent campaign backer of Trump, his departure letter lacked effusive praise for the president and made clear the resignation came “at your request.”
“I have been honored to serve as Attorney General and have worked to implement the law enforcement agenda based on the rule of law that formed a central part of your campaign for the presidency,” the letter concluded. Trump thanked Sessions and said he would be replaced on an acting basis by Matthew G. Whitaker, Sessions’ chief of staff.
The move has potentially ominous implications for special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe given that the new acting attorney general, Matthew Whitaker, until now Sessions’ chief of staff, has questioned the inquiry’s scope and spoke publicly before joining the Justice Department about ways an attorney general could theoretically stymie the investigation. Democrats immediately decried that Whitaker, who has not been confirmed by the Senate, would be in the position to oversee the probe. Whitaker served as a legal commentator for broad- caster CNN, and in 2017 he penned an article that argued the Mueller investigation is going too far and expressly demanded the probe not include Trump’s or his family’s finances. Senator Chuck Schumer said it would create a constitutional crisis if Sessions’ departure were a prelude to ending the probe. “I hope President Trump and those he listens to will refrain from that,” Schumer told reporters, later adding in a tweet, “Clearly, the President has something to hide.”
Whitaker should recuse himself from its oversight, Schumer said, given his previous comments advocating imposing limitations on the Mueller investigation. Trump said earlier at a news conference that the probe “is not good for the country” and it should end.