Report: Trump Ordered Sessions to Resign Over Mueller Appointment
YA NOT FIRED
Also reportedly called the attorney general an “idiot” to his face.
REUTERS/Yuri Gripas
President Donald Trump demanded Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ resignation in May, after he learned that Robert Mueller had been appointed special counsel to investigate the Trump team’s Russia ties, the New York Times reported Thursday. The president and advisers including Sessions were reportedly discussing in May a replacement for former FBI chief James Comey, when Donald McGahn III received a call from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein informing him that Mueller had been appointed special counsel. Trump reportedly began berating Sessions, who had recused himself from the Russia investigation, telling the attorney general that appointing him was one of his worst decisions. He also reportedly called Sessions an “idiot” during the blowout and demanded he resign. The attorney general shortly afterwards turned in a short letter of resignation but, the Times reported, members of Trump’s inner circle including Vice President Mike Pence, then-White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, and then-Chief of Staff Reince Preibus urged the president to reconsider, telling him a Sessions resignation would only further the narrative of White House chaos.
