Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he is confident his choice to recuse himself from the federal investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election was a good one.
“I believe I did the right thing, the only thing I could do,” Sessions told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo in an interview that will air in full Sunday morning on Fox News. She had asked him if he had any regrets in the recusal last year, which elicited the ire of his boss, President Trump.
“I participated in this campaign, and as such under explicit regulations of the Department of Justice, no one can participate in the investigation of a campaign in which they were an active participant,” added Sessions.
TOMORROW on “@SundayFutures with @MariaBartiromo,” Maria will talk to Attorney General Jeff Sessions – tune in at 10a ET on Fox News Channel! pic.twitter.com/aVfRr2jEl1— Fox News (@FoxNews) February 17, 2018
Sessions, a former U.S. senator from Alabama, worked as an adviser in Trump’s campaign. Members of the campaign are now being looked at by Mueller’s team to see if there was any collusion with the Kremlin. Mueller was appointed special counsel by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey and Sessions recused himself in May 2017.
Sessions’ latest comments on his decision to recuse himself last summer comes after last week’s reveal of excerpts from an upcoming new edition of a book, The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency, which discuss how former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus twice convinced Trump not to have Sessions removed from the administration following his recusal.
Priebus’ account said Sessions offered his resignation to the president in May 2017 after the president reportedly called him an “idiot” and belittled him to his face in an Oval Office meeting when he rescued himself from the Russia investigation. After Priebus convinced Trump not to accept Sessions’ letter of resignation, he again diffused a tense situation after Trump ordered Priebus to get Sessions to resign “flat out” as he grew increasingly frustrated due to Mueller’s investigation and he openly called the attorney general “weak” on Twitter.
Note:This story was corrected to show the interview took place on Fox News, not Fox Business.
