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Attorney General Jeff Sessions resigns from DOJ on Trump’s request
RT,
7
November, 2018
US
President Donald Trump has requested - and received - the resignation
of Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The Department of Justice will be
led by his chief of staff Matthew Whitaker until a permanent
replacement is nominated.
“We
thank Attorney General Jeff Sessions for his service, and wish him
well!” Trump
said on Twitter Wednesday afternoon, after announcing the appointment
of Whitaker.
There
is a potential problem with Whitaker’s appointment over the head of
the current deputy AG Rod Rosenstein, who has been in charge of
special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into allegations of
Trump-Russia “collusion” during the 2016 presidential election.
Rosenstein was confirmed to his post by the Senate, whereas Whitaker
was not.
Also,
Whitaker would be taking over from Rosenstein the oversight of the
Mueller investigation.
“The
Acting Attorney General is in charge of all matters under the purview
of the Department of Justice,” DOJ
spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores told reporters on Wednesday.
The
sacking of Sessions and the appointment of Whitaker have alarmed
Democrats, who are concerned that Trump is making moves to shut down
the Mueller probe. Prior to becoming Sessions’ chief of staff in
September 2017, Whitaker worked as a legal commentator for CNN,
and at
one point argued
that Mueller’s investigation was becoming a “witch
hunt.”
There
have already been calls by Democrats in Congress for Whitaker to
recuse himself from the Russia probe.
After
opposing Sessions’ appointment as AG and criticizing him for
enacting Trump’s policies at the DOJ for the past two years, many
Democrats are now decrying his firing as obstruction of justice
.
Sessions,
a senator from Alabama at the time, joined the Trump campaign early
on and was considered a favorite to take over the Department of
Justice in the new administration. He was immediately forced to
recuse himself from any probes into “Russiagate,” due to his role
in the campaign, however.
Since
then, Trump has frequently clashed with Sessions over the DOJ’s
handling of the Russia probe. The DOJ’s refusal to comply with
congressional oversight requests to turn over documents related to
the FBI’s spying on the Trump campaign also caused increasing
frustration at the White House, prompting the president to declare at
one point, “I
have no attorney general!”
“I’m
not happy at the border, I’m not happy with numerous
things,” including
the Russia probe, Trump told The Hill in September. “I’m
very disappointed in Jeff. Very disappointed.”
Sessions
has maintained his loyalty to Trump and the president’s law and
order agenda, even in the resignation letter.
With
Republicans picking up seats in the Senate in Tuesday’s midterm
elections, despite losing a majority in the House of Representatives,
Trump was widely expected to reshuffle his Cabinet in the near
future, though the speed with which Sessions was ushered out was
unexpected in Washington.
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