Jeff Sessions has resigned as attorney general — a day after the midterm elections.
Sessions submitted his resignation, effective immediately, at the request of President Trump, according to reports.
Following the announcement, President Trump almost immediately confirmed that Matthew G. Whitaker, Chief of Staff to Attorney General Jeff Sessions at the Department of Justice, will become the new Acting Attorney General of the United States.
Whitaker will oversee the Mueller investigation.
Trump added, “We thank Attorney General Jeff Sessions for his service, and wish him well! A permanent replacement will be nominated at a later date.”
BREAKING: Attorney General Jeff Sessions Resigns
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) November 7, 2018
Sessions was an early supporter of Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, and was nominated by Trump for the post of U.S. Attorney General. He was confirmed on February 8, 2017, with a 52–47 vote in the Senate, and was sworn in on February 9, 2017. In his Attorney General confirmation hearings, Sessions stated, while under oath, that he did not have contact with Russian officials during the 2016 presidential campaign and that he was unaware of any contacts between Trump campaign members and Russian officials.
However, in March 2017, news reports revealed that Sessions had twice met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak in 2016. Sessions subsequently recused himself from any investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, while some Democratic lawmakers called for his resignation. In testimony before the House Intelligence Committee in November 2017, Carter Page declared that he had notified Sessions about his contacts with Kremlin officials in July 2016, contradicting Sessions’s earlier denials.
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