Summary: On Wednesday, President Donald Trump insulted Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Twitter by lamenting his hiring.
President Donald Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ relationship continues to be rocky. On Tuesday night, it was revealed that Sessions was cooperating with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe, and on Wednesday, Trump expressed on Twitter that he regretted picking the Alabaman for his high position.
On Tuesday, the New York Times published a damning piece about Trump and Sessions that sparked the president’s most recent outrage. The publication described an angry meeting last year in Florida where Trump had demanded Sessions reverse his decision to recuse himself from the Russian investigation. Sessions refused, and Trump’s animosity towards him never ended.
Some say that this meeting opens Trump up to obstruction of justice charge.
On Wednesday, Representative Trey Gowdy, a Republican from South Carolina, said that Trump should’ve “picked somebody else” to be the Attorney General, and Trump replied on Twitter, “I wish I did!”
“If I were the president and I picked someone to be the country’s chief law enforcement officer, and they told me later, ‘Oh by the way, I’m not going to be able to participate in the most important case in the office,’ I would be frustrated too,” Gowdy said, according to Trump. “There are lots of really good lawyers in the country, he could have picked somebody else!”
Trump and Sessions’ relationship soured in early 2017. At that time, Sessions recused himself from the government’s investigation into Trump’s relationship with Russia and whether or not the country helped get him elected. Trump has frequently criticized Sessions for this choice, which allowed Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to hire Mueller, who has since been diligently looking into all aspects of Trump’s life.
“Sessions, one of Trump’s biggest boosters during the 2016 campaign, recused himself in March 2017 from any investigations related to the campaign. The announcement came a day after The Washington Post revealed that Sessions had twice met with Sergey Kislyak, the U.S. ambassador to the United States, during the campaign and did not disclose that to the Senate Judiciary Committee during his confirmation hearing in January,” the Washington Post stated.
Sessions had recused himself based on ethics guidelines of impartiality, and his lawyers had advised him to do so.
According to CNN, Trump’s public outbursts against Sessions have attracted Mueller, who plans to interview the attorney general about his thoughts on Trump.
Trump has repeatedly denied working with Russia to win the 2016 election, and he has called Mueller’s probe a “witch hunt.”
As president, Trump could fire Sessions at any time, according to the Washington Post.
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