29 July, 2017
US Attorney General Jeff Sessions will launch an investigation into unauthorized releases of classified and sensitive information to the media, White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci said in an interview on Wednesday. Sessions, a hardline conservative senator from Alabama, was the first senator to endorse Trump, at a time when he was still largely rejected by most Republicans.
Trump also said again that he was frustrated that Sessions had recused himself from a federal investigation into possible collusion between Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and Russian Federation, but stopped short of saying whether he would fire him. He wants Sessions out, and discussed its implications with his advisers and has even looked at possible replacements.
Mr Trump's new barb at Mr Sessions came as the embattled attorney general visited the White House for what his spokeswoman described as a "routine" meeting of cabinet principals.
A source close to Sessions said he has a "spine of steel" and plans on remaining in office until he is fired or asked to resign. Forcing Sessions out and appointing an attorney general who could fire Robert Mueller and derail the inquiry could be the most effective way of doing that.
Democrats also will try to block any appointment made during the upcoming congressional recess, when Trump would be able to appoint someone without a confirmation or a vote by the Senate, said Coons.
"It's unfair to Jeff Sessions, he's a good man who deserves better, and some of the suggestions the president is making go way beyond what's acceptable", Mr Graham said. "If he was going to recuse himself, he should've told me prior to taking office and I would've, quite simply, picked somebody else", the President told the news conference.
"This effort to, basically, marginalize and humiliate the attorney general is not going over well in the Senate", Graham told reporters on Thursday.
Trump dismissed former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates in January following her instruction to the Justice Department to not defend Trump's executive order banning immigrants from a select few predominantly Muslim countries from entering the U.S.
"I don't recall anybody threatening to fire anyone at the Federal Bureau of Investigation when they were investigating Hillary Clinton", McCaskill said, referring to the Obama administration.
Some tweeted that it's Jared Kushner who has been urging the president for Sessions' ouster. "But I believe that I understand his mission", he said. Fox News ran a similar story on Wednesday morning, also citing unnamed sources.
"The presidency isn't a bull, and this country isn't a china shop", Sasse said.
