President Trump’s increasingly bitter outlook toward Attorney General Jeff Sessions has heightened tensions inside an administration already on edge due to a West Wing staffing shuffle, an expanding special counsel probe and the uncertain future of the president’s top legislative priorities.
Trump’s incoming communications director stoked speculation about Sessions’ ouster Tuesday with comments that suggested the president could soon discard his attorney general, over a rift in their relationship that opened up when Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation earlier this year.
The president refused to clarify the situation Tuesday afternoon when he announced during a press conference that only “time will tell” whether the attorney general remains in his post.
And White House aides remained largely silent on the intrigue as the incoming press chief threatened to throw any staffer caught leaking “out on Pennsylvania Avenue.”
A source close to Sessions’ team told the Washington Examiner the attorney general had no immediate plans to resign. However, Trump and his new communications director heaped fresh pressure on Sessions Tuesday with new tweets and comments, suggesting the president and his attorney general could be moving closer to a breaking point.
The source noted he was “not sure” how Sessions and Trump could ever return to having a functional relationship within the administration after the events of the past week.
As Senate Republicans rushed to defend their erstwhile colleague on Tuesday, Trump was hurling additional insults at an attorney general he described earlier this week as “beleaguered.” Trump added Sessions’ lack of progress on prosecuting leakers to his list of grievances against the attorney general, whom he said had “disappointed” him.
Some sources close to the White House expressed doubt about Sessions’ future in the administration.
“I still think Sessions is a goner,” said one White House confidante, although he conceded he did not “know for sure.”
Trump’s first public acknowledgment of his deteriorating relationship with Sessions came last week during an interview with the New York Times, during which he said that special counsel Robert Mueller would overstep his investigative mandate if he began looking into Trump’s financial dealings. The comment has raised questions about whether Trump’s sudden public animosity toward Sessions is linked to a private expansion of Mueller’s probe.
One source close to the White House highlighted the proximity of Trump’s tirades against Sessions to Jared Kushner’s testimony before the House and Senate committees looking into Russian meddling. The source noted that the Sessions speculation has created a “massive distraction” from Kushner’s involvement in the Russia probe and suggested that could explain at least the timing of Trump’s decision to go after his attorney general in public for a recusal that occurred four months ago.
Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, met privately with the House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday and spoke to members of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Monday, marking a major step forward for congressional investigations of Russian meddling.
Sessions has so far given no indication that the president’s displeasure has caused him to consider leaving the Justice Department, however.
A Justice Department spokeswoman told the Washington Examiner on Tuesday that she still had “no updates” on whether Sessions and Trump have spoken recently.
Anthony Scaramucci, incoming White House communications director, told reporters outside the West Wing on Tuesday that he did not know whether the president has spoken with his attorney general in the last 24 hours.
Trump’s fury is focused on Sessions’ decision in March to recuse himself from any inquiry involving the Trump campaign given his role on it as a high-level surrogate.
The recusal paved the way for Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to name Mueller as special counsel in May, when news reports orchestrated by former FBI Director James Comey indicated the president may have inappropriately intervened in an FBI investigation of a close associate.
Mueller oversees an investigation into allegations that Trump campaign officials colluded with Russian hackers to influence the 2016 race. No evidence of such activity has so far come to light.
Sessions’ precarious position comes as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson quietly took time off from his post amid whispers that he is dissatisfied with State Department staffing levels and frustrated with the direction of the administration.
State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Tuesday that Tillerson was “just taking a little time off” when pressed by reporters about why his whereabouts this week had not been made public. “He’s got a lot of work….So he’s entitled to take a few days himself,” she said.
But speculation has mounted this week that Tillerson could be next to exit the administration out of frustration with the White House.
And Trump’s chief of staff, Reince Priebus, has also faced speculation this week that the president wants to remove him from the West Wing.
Priebus opposed Scaramucci’s hiring, for which sources say Ivanka Trump advocated, and he is closely aligned with outgoing press secretary Sean Spicer, who resigned in protest of the press shop shake-up.
Priebus suffered another minor blow on Tuesday when Scaramucci ousted a fellow Republican National Committee alum, Michael Short, by publicly discussing Short’s impending termination before Short was personally informed of the decision. Short resigned on Tuesday, incoming press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement.
Scaramucci has threatened to strip the White House communications office down to himself and Sanders in an effort to stop leaks, a move that appeared to have a chilling effect on aides’ willingness to discuss the situation between Trump and Sessions on Tuesday.
Sessions still has powerful allies in the West Wing and on Capitol Hill, however. Beyond the congressional Republicans who have risen to his defense this week, Sessions counts two high-ranking White House staffers among his former Senate aides: Rick Dearborn, deputy chief of staff for legislative affairs, and Stephen Miller, a senior adviser and top speechwriter for Trump.
