Donald Trump has unleashed an extraordinary barrage of criticism against several of his own top officials, accusing senior members of the Department of Justice (DoJ) of having conflicts of interest and expressing regret that he had appointed Jeff Sessions as US attorney general.
Trump delivered a splurge of invective against key players within his own administration that was exceptional even by his own unconventional standards.
At the center of his attack was Sessions, the former senator from Alabama who was forced to step aside from the investigation into possible Russian collusion with the Trump campaignin March after meetings he had failed to disclose with the Russian ambassador came to light.
Trump attacked Sessions for recusing himself from the inquiry, adding that he would never have given Sessions the job as the country’s chief law enforcement officer had he known.
“Sessions should have never recused himself, and if he was going to recuse himself he should have told me before he took the job and I would have picked somebody else.”
The US president described Sessions’ actions as “extremely unfair – and that’s a mild word – to the president”. Sessions was not the only senior justice official to get it in the neck from their leader.
The No 2 at the DoJ, Rod Rosenstein, was charged by Trump of carrying a critical conflict of interest.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jul/19/donald-trump-jeff-sessions-recusal?_e_pi_=7%2CPAGE_ID10%2C1284816209