Attorney General Jeff Sessions threatened the White House that he would resign if President Donald Trump fires Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
The Washington Post reported Friday that in a phone call, Sessions told White House counsel Don McGahn that he could leave the Justice Department if Rosenstein is fired. The phone call came as a result of the new series of attacks on Rosenstein and special counsel Robert Mueller by Trump, following the FBI raid of the home and office of his personal attorney Michael Cohen.
The new attacks returned the speculations that Trump may fire Rosenstein or Mueller. Rosenstein is the one that oversees the law enforcement investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, while Mueller is the one carrying out that probe.
According to the Post, during the phone call with McGahn, Sessions also asked for details of a meeting between Trump and Rosenstein that took place on April 12 and was reportedly relieved when he was told that the encounter was warm and friendly.
Meanwhile, one person familiar with the phone call told the Post that Sessions did not intend to threaten his resignation, but simply wanted to express his concern that Rosenstein’s firing would put him in a difficult position.
Rosenstein and Mueller angered Trump last week when the raid on Cohen’s home and office emerged. That raid was carried out after federal prosecutors in Manhattan obtained a search warrant, based partly on a referral from Mueller.
However, the President backed away from the idea of firing Rosenstein and Mueller after the deputy attorney general assured him in the White House meeting that he was not a target of Mueller’s investigation. The details of that meeting were reported Thursday by Bloomberg News.
Trump regularly criticizes the Russia investigation, insisting that there was no collusion between his campaign and Moscow and that the probe is a “witch hunt.”
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