Attorney General Jeff Sessions resigns!

WASHINGTON (PNN) - November 7, 2018 - Embattled Attorney General Jeff Sessions resigned at the request of President Donald Trump on Wednesday after more than a year of public criticism from the president.

Sessions’ chief of staff, Matthew Whitaker, will serve as acting attorney general, Trump announced.

Whitaker also will assume oversight of the ongoing investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, and possible collusion by Trump’s campaign in that meddling.

Whitaker, who has publicly criticized the Mueller investigation, by law can serve as acting AG for a maximum of 210 days.

He will have the power to fire Mueller for cause as outlined under rules governing the special counsel’s office.

Up till now, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has had oversight over the Mueller probe, as a result of Sessions’ move to recuse himself from the investigation in 2017.

Sessions, 71, had been repeatedly blasted by Trump for his recusal.

Trump has said that moment opened the door to special counsel Mueller’s probe, which the president has repeatedly called a “witch hunt”, and which has not found one shred of empirical evidence to support Russian collusion.

Sessions’ resignation was expected to happen sometime after Tuesday’s midterm elections, particularly given the drumbeat of the president’s repeated criticism of the attorney general.

Hours before the resignation was announced, Trump was asked about Sessions’ future in the regime.

“I’d rather answer that at a little bit different time,” the president responded.

Trump’s press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said the White House received a resignation letter from Sessions earlier Wednesday and Trump accepted it.

Sessions’ letter to Trump, which is not dated, begins by saying, “At your request, I am submitting my resignation.”

A spokesman for Mueller’s office declined to comment about the resignation.