Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Thursday he plans to stay on the job at the Department of Justice, on the heels of President Trump sharply criticizing him for recusing himself from the Russia probe.
In a press conference on Thursday scheduled to discuss cybercrime, Sessions’ appearance took a quick turn to the issue of whether the top law enforcement official plans to offer his resignation to Trump.
“We in this Department of Justice will continue every single day to work hard to serve the national interest, and we whole-heartedly join in priorities of President Trump,” Sessions responded. “I have the honor of serving as attorney general. It’s something that goes beyond any thought that I’ve ever had for myself.”
Sessions added: “We love this job, and we love this department and I plan to continue to do so as long as that is appropriate.”
Sessions was pressed as to how he could run the DOJ without the confidence of the president, after Trump told The New York Times that he never would have appointed him attorney general if he had known Sessions would recuse himself from the Russia investigation.
“We’re serving right now—the work we’re doing is the kind of work we intend to continue,” Sessions said.
Sessions, one of Trump’s early Republican supporters, recused himself from overseeing the FBI’s Russia probe on March 2, after media reports he had conversations with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. that he did not disclose.
Trump slammed Sessions and told the New York Times his recusal was “very unfair to the president” and said he would never have appointed him attorney general if he had known he would do so.
“How do you take a job and then recuse yourself?” Trump asked. “If he would have recused himself before the job, I would have said, ‘Thanks, Jeff, but I’m not going to take you.”
Sessions’ comments Thursday followed reports overnight that he could consider offering his resignation in the wake of those comments. Early last month, The New York Times reported that Sessions offered to step down from his post as attorney general, but the president declined.
