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Bloomberg
US Attorney General Jeff Sessions had suggested in the past several weeks he might resign amid a widening rift with President Donald Trump, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Sessions has come under fire from the president over his recusal from an investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 US election, an inquiry that’s now exploring whether Trump associates colluded with Moscow. The attorney general’s suggestion that he might consider quitting was reported earlier by ABC News and confirmed by a person familiar who discussed the matter on condition of anonymity.
Trump also has assailed the Justice Department for its handling of the administration’s controversial travel ban, and he accused it in a series of tweets on Monday of weakening his plans to limit entry for citizens from about a half-dozen Muslim nations. Both versions of Trump’s travel ban have been blocked by federal courts.
“The Justice Dept. should have stayed with the original Travel Ban, not the watered down, politically correct version they submitted,†Trump said in one tweet on Monday. Trump himself signed both versions of the ban.
On Tuesday, White House spokesman Sean Spicer declined to say whether Trump retains confidence in Sessions, following Trump’s tweets on the travel ban.
“I have not had a discussion with him about that,†Spicer responded after a reporter asked whether Trump continued to support his attorney general.
Spicer gave a similar answer on May 9 when asked whether Trump still had confidence in then-FBI Director James Comey. Trump fired Comey later that day.
Comey is scheduled to testify on Thursday before the Senate Intelligence Committee about his interactions with Trump. The ousted Federal Bureau of Investigation chief is expected to discuss whether the president asked him to slow the Russia probe and a related inquiry into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.