WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Jeff Sessions resigned Wednesday as the country’s chief law enforcement officer after enduring more than a year of blistering and personal attacks over his recusal from the Russia investigation.
Sessions announced his resignation in a letter to President Donald Trump. He said the resignation came at “your request.”
Trump announced in a separate tweet that he was naming Sessions’ chief of staff Matthew Whitaker, a former United States attorney from Iowa, as acting attorney general.
The resignation was the culmination of a toxic relationship that frayed just weeks into the attorney general’s tumultuous tenure, when he stepped aside from the investigation into potential coordination between the president’s campaign and Russia.
Trump blamed the decision for opening the door to the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller, who took over the Russia investigation and began examining whether Trump’s hectoring of Sessions was part of a broader effort to obstruct justice and stymie the probe.
Read the letter below:
President Donald J. Trump The White House Washington, DC. 20500 Dear Mr. President, At your request, I am submitting my resignation. Since the day I was honored to be sworn in as Attorney General of the United States, I came to work at the Department ofJustice every day determined to do my duty and serve my country. I have done so to the best of my ability, working to support the fundamental legal processes that are the foundation ofjustice. The team we assembled embraced your directive to be a law and order Department of Justice. We prosecuted the largest number of violent offenders and ?rearm defendants in our country?s history. We took on transnational gangs that are bringing violence and death across our borders and protected national security. We did our part to restore immigration enforcement. We targeted the opioid epidemic by prosecuting doctors, pharmacists, and anyone else who contributes to this crisis with new law enforcement tools and determination. And we have seen results. After two years of rising violent crime and homicides prior to this administration, those trends have reversed?thanks to the hard work ofour prosecutors and law enforcement around the country. I am particularly grateful to the fabulous men and women in law enforcement all over this country with whom I have served. I have had no greater honor than to serve alongside them. As I have said many times, they have my thanks and I will always have their backs. Most importantly. in my time as Attorney General we have restored and upheld the rule of law?a glorious tradition that each of us has a responsibility to safeguard. We have operated with integrity and have lawfully and aggressively advanced the policy agenda of this administration. I have been honored to serve as Attorney General and have worked to implement the law enforcement agenda based on the rule of law that formed a central part of your campaign for the Presidency. Thank you for the opportunity, Mr. President. Jefferson B. Sessions III Attorney General
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