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.
We are pleased to announce that Matthew G. Whitaker, Chief of Staff to Attorney General Jeff Sessions at the Department of Justice, will become our new Acting Attorney General of the United States. He will serve our Country well….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 7, 2018
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.
In his resignation letter, SESSIONS writes, "we have restored and upheld the rule of law — a glorious tradition that each of us has a responsibility to safeguard." pic.twitter.com/w47dnvNc3X
— Philip Rucker (@PhilipRucker) November 7, 2018
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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