Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Thursday shot back at President Trump’s latest criticism that he hasn’t controlled his department, and said he “took control of the Department of Justice the day I was sworn in.”
“[W]hich is why we have had unprecedented success at effectuating the president’s agenda,” Sessions said in a statement Thursday afternoon.
His statement was released just before Sessions was set to meet in the White House with Trump on criminal justice reform.
In an interview with Fox News that aired Thursday morning, Trump again lambasted his attorney general as ineffective.
“I put in an attorney general who never took control of the Justice Department. Jeff Sessions, never took control of the Justice Department. It’s sort of an incredible thing,” Trump said, adding another salvo of criticism about the nation’s top law enforcement officer.
Trump has repeatedly bemoaned Sessions for recusing himself from the Russia investigation, which paved the way for the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller in May 2017.
[More: Trump shames Sessions: ‘If we had a real Attorney General,’ there would be no Russia investigation]
“It’s a very, very sad day. Jeff Sessions recused himself, which he shouldn’t have done or he should have told me,” Trump said. “Even my enemies say that Jeff Sessions should have told you that he was going to recuse himself and then you wouldn’t have put him in.”
Sessions has defended himself against Trump’s complaints in the past, and in his statement Thursday he added: “While I am Attorney General, the actions of the Department of Justice will not be improperly influenced by political considerations. I demand the highest standards, and where they are not met, I take action. “
“However, no nation has a more talented, more dedicated group of law enforcement investigators and prosecutors than the United States,” the former senator from Alabama said. “I am proud to serve with them and proud of the work we have done in successfully advancing the rule of law.”
Trump did decline in the Fox News interview to say if he would fire Sessions or Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who oversees Mueller.
