Attorney General Sessions Resigns at Trump’s Request

Jeff Sessions. Screen grab from ABCNews

The Attorney General of the U.S., Jeff Sessions, has just resigned effective immediately. In his resignation letter, Sessions states he wasr being asked to do so by President Trump.

“At your request, I am submitting my resignation,” Sessions wrote in an undated letter to the president. He also wrote:

“Since the day I was honored to be sworn in as Attorney General of the United States, I came to work at the Department of Jusitce every day determined to do my duty and serve my country. I have done so to the best of my ability, working to support the fundamental legal processes that are the foundation of justice.”

Trump also has tweeted that Sessions’ chief of staff, Matthew G. Whitaker, will serve as acting attorney general. And Acting-AG Whitaker will not be recused from the Russian-Trump investigation.

This means that now Special Council Robert Mueller will have to report to Whitaker, not Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein. By law, Whitaker can remain in his new position for 210 days or until Trump appoints a new AG.

At Trump’s hour-long plus press conference Wednesday, he was asked about his plans for the future of Sessions, and he declined to say anything about it except that he’d rather address the question “at another time.” Then less than an hour later, Sessions resigns.

Whitaker is not supposed to be a fan of the Mueller investigation. He’s on the record, according to MSNBC, of calling the investigation “an over-reach” and has stated that there are ways to cut its budget to limit its scope.

Here is more on the new acting AG.

Matthew Whitaker was Sessions’ Chief of Staff. Prior to that, he was a lawyer with a conservative watchdog group, and also a U.S. Attorney in Iowa.

In August 2017 Whitaker let loose his feelings about the Mueller investigation. In an op-ed piece, he wrote:

“Mueller has come up to a red line in the Russia 2016 election-meddling investigation that he is dangerously close to crossing.”

“It does not take a lawyer or even a former federal prosecutor like myself to conclude that investigating Donald Trump’s finances or his family’s finances falls completely outside of the realm of his 2016 campaign and allegations that the campaign coordinated with the Russian government or anyone else.”

He added:

“Any investigation into President Trump’s finances or the finances of his family would require Mueller to return to Rod Rosenstein for additional authority under Mueller’s appointment as special counsel.”

“If he were to continue to investigate the financial relationships without a broadened scope in his appointment, then this would raise serious concerns that the special counsel’s investigation was a mere witch hunt. Mueller is indeed going down this path, Rosenstein should act to ensure the investigation is within its jurisdiction and within the authority of the original directive.”

And to pour heat on the fire, Rosenstein is reportedly on his way to the White House and is scheduled to be there at 4pm ET.

Here is the Sessions’ letter (notice the date – clue: there isn’t one):