Bombshell Jeff Sessions resignation rocks United States after midterm elections

A SUDDEN resignation “at the request of the President” has rocked America. But already there are calls for action against Donald Trump.

A SUDDEN resignation has rocked the United States mere hours after the midterm elections, with Attorney General Jeff Sessions stepping down at the request of the President.

That’s a nice, euphemistic way of saying he was fired.

“I came to work at the Department of Justice every day determined to do my duty and serve my country. I have done so to the best of my ability,” Mr Sessions wrote in a letter delivered to the White House today.

He cited a crackdown on violent crime, tighter immigration enforcement and efforts to combat the opioid epidemic as his major achievements in office.

Mr Sessions’ Chief of Staff Matthew Whitaker will serve as acting Attorney General until Donald Trump nominates a permanent replacement.

That nominee will then need to be confirmed by a vote in the Senate - a process which should be made easier by the Republicans’ gains in yesterday’s elections.

The acting Attorney General, Mr Whitaker, was a conservative legal commentator before he joined Mr Sessions’ staff.

Last year he floated the idea of reducing Mr Mueller’s budget “so low that his investigation grinds to almost a halt”.

In an opinion piece he wrote for CNN, Mr Whitaker said Mr Mueller risked going “beyond the scope” of his investigation by examining Mr Trump’s finances.

He also publicly defended Mr Trump’s son, Donald Jr, for meeting with Russians at Trump Tower in the hope of securing dirt on Hillary Clinton in 2016.

“You would always take that meeting,” he said.

The Trump Tower meeting, and the Trump family’s subsequent attempts to keep it secret, have been a focal point for the investigation.

Congressman Jerry Nadler, the incoming chairman of the judiciary committee, said the sacking fitted a “clear pattern of interference from President Donald Trump”.

“There is no mistaking what this means, and what is at stake: this is a constitutionally perilous moment for our country and for the President,” Mr Nadler said.

“Donald Trump may think he has the power to hire and fire whomever he pleases, but he cannot take such action if it is determined that it is for the purposes of subverting the rule of law and obstructing justice.

“If he abuses his office in such a fashion, then there will be consequences.”

Mr Nadler said it would be “inappropriate” for Mr Whitaker to supervise the special counsel investigation.

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Jeff Sessions. Pic: AP

Mr Sessions has endured a tortured relationship with Mr Trump since he recused himself from overseeing the investigation into Russia’s 2016 election interference.

The President has repeatedly unleashed humiliating criticism of him in public, sparking a year of speculation he was trying to force out his own Attorney General.

“What kind of man is this?” Mr Trump fumed on Fox News in August, saying Mr Sessions “never took control of the Justice Department”.

Mr Sessions pushed back at the time, saying the department “will not be improperly influenced by political considerations”.

Why was Mr Trump so angry with the man he himself appointed? There were a few reasons. Mr Sessions did not take any legal action against Mr Trump’s vanquished 2016 opponent, Hillary Clinton. He refused to appoint a special counsel to investigate the FBI.

But the biggest motivation was Mr Sessions’ recusal from all matters concerning Russian election interference. Mr Trump felt it was the Attorney General’s responsibility to protect him, and Mr Sessions had personally betrayed him.

In truth, Mr Sessions had no choice.

Early last year, it emerged that he had failed to disclose meetings with Russian officials during his confirmation hearings. If he had overseen the Russia investigation himself, there inevitably would have been accusations of a conflict of interest.

Donald Trump. Pic: AFP

Mr Trump publicly harangued Mr Sesssions for months. He frequently criticised him on Twitter and in media interviews, calling him “disgraceful” and “weak”.

“Sessions should have never recused himself, and if he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me before he took the job, and I would have picked somebody else,” he told the New York Times.

“How do you take a job and then recuse yourself? If he would have recused himself before the job, I would have said, ‘Thanks Jeff, but I can’t, you know, I’m not going to take you.’”

The rather glaring flaw with that argument is that Mr Sessions had no idea he would have to recuse himself until after he was appointed.

Mr Trump had kinder words for Mr Sessions as he announced the resignation today, thanking him for his service to the country.

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

....We thank Attorney General Jeff Sessions for his service, and wish him well! A permanent replacement will be nominated at a later date.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 7, 2018

With Mr Sessions gone, the President’s new Attorney General will assume oversight of the Mueller investigation, which has so far been run and protected by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

Mr Trump could now try to stymie or shut down the investigation.

Earlier today he said voters were “finally beginning to understand what a disgusting witch hunt” the probe is, and repeated his frequent claim it’s led by “17 angry Democrats”.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller is a Republican, as is Mr Rosenstein.

Jeff Sessions on the left. Matthew Whitaker on the right. Pic: AFP

Speaking to MSNBC in the wake of Mr Sessions’ resignation, former Justice Department spokesman Matt Miller said Mr Whitaker was the “worst possible choice” for “anyone who wants to protect the integrity of the Mueller investigation”.

“By forcing Jeff Sessions out - he made it clear that this resignation was at (Trump’s) request - and then picking someone to replace him, not just any person but one of the few people at the Justice Department who’s weighed in on the record criticising the Mueller investigation ... I don’t think that’s a coincidence,” he said.

On Fox News, former judge Andrew Napolitano questioned Mr Trump’s motivation for ditching Mr Sessions.

“The President can fire an Attorney General for almost any reason, but not for an improper purpose,” he explained.

“He cannot fire him if the purpose of the firing is to shake up the leadership of the Justice Department in order to interfere with a criminal investigation that the President wants to interfere with.”

Judge Napolitano said the situtation was “beginning to look more and more nefarious”.