Sessions says he might resign if Rosenstein fired
The attorney general said he may have to leave his job if Trump fired his deputy, Rod Rosenstein.
WASHINGTON — Attorney General Jeff Sessions recently told the White House he might have to leave his job if President Donald Trump fired his deputy, Rod Rosenstein, who oversees the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, according to people familiar with the exchange.
Sessions made his position known in a phone call to White House counsel Donald McGahn last weekend, as Trump’s fury at Rosenstein peaked after the deputy attorney general approved the FBI’s raid April 9 on the president’s personal attorney Michael Cohen.
Sessions’s message to the White House, which has not previously been reported, underscores the political
firestorm that Trump would invite should he attempt to remove the deputy attorney general. While Trump also
has railed against Sessions at times, the protest resignation of an attorney general — which would be likely to incite other departures within the administration — would create a moment of profound
crisis for the White House. In the phone call with McGahn, Sessions wanted details of a meeting Trump and Rosenstein held at the White House on April 12, according to a person with knowledge of the call. Sessions expressed relief to learn that their meeting was largely cordial. Sessions said he would have had to con
sider leaving as the attorney general had Trump ousted Rosenstein, this person said. Another person famil
iar with the exchange said Sessions did not intend to threaten the White House but rather to convey the untenable position that Rosenstein’s firing would put him in.
A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment.
Rosenstein’s status remains
uncertain, but the pressure he is facing seemed to sub
side after last week.
Last summer, when it appeared Trump was going to fire Sessions or pressure him to resign, Republican lawmakers and conservative advocacy groups rallied to Sessions’s side and warned the president not to move against him.
Trump had told senior officials last week that he was considering firing Rosenstein, who was confirmed by the Senate with overwhelming bipartisan support last year. Sincethen, alumni of the Justice Department have rallied to Rosenstein’s defense.
As of Friday afternoon, more than 800 former Jus
tice Department employees had signed an open letter calling on Congress to “swiftly and forcefully respond to
protect the founding principles of our Republic and the rule of law” if Trump were to fire the deputy attorney general, special counsel Robert Mueller or other senior Justice Department officials. The group MoveOn.org has sought to organize nationwide protests if such an event were to occur.
Rosenstein, on behalf of the Justice Department, is set to argue a sentencing case, Chavez-Meza v. United States, before the Supreme Court on Monday. Appearing before the high court has long been a professional goal, people close to Rosenstein say. A senior administration
official said Sessions does not like the way Rosenstein has been treated by the president and has expressed such concerns for months. He regularly has sought guidance from the White House about Rosenstein’s standing with the president and asked about his interactions with Trump,
this official said.
But Sessions has had little ability to do anything about it, given his own shaky standing with Trump for recusing himself from the Russia investigation, this official said. Trump has, at times, referred to Sessions as “Mr. Magoo” and Rosenstein as “Mr. Peepers,” a character from a 1950s sitcom, according to people with whom the president has spoken.
The relationship between Sessions and Rosenstein — and their staffs — has been strained at times over the first year of the Trump administration. But people familiar with Sessions’s thinking say that he has said several times that he would find it difficult to remain if Trump fired for no good reason the veteran Baltimore prosecutor Sessions chose to be his deputy.