Washington | Attorney General Jeff Sessions resigned on Wednesday (Thursday AEDT) at President Donald Trump's request, ending the tenure of a loyalist he soured on shortly after Sessions took office in 2017 because the former senator from Alabama had recused himself from oversight of the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign.

Despite the tension with the White House, Sessions had described the position of top law enforcement officer as his dream job and he pursued his conservative agenda with gusto. But he also had to live with sometimes humiliating attacks from a president he couldn't seem to please and the suspicions of career staff members who feared the politicisation of a Justice Department that prides itself on its independence.