BREAKING: JEFF SESSIONS RESIGNS AS ATTORNEY GENERAL. https://t.co/Ssxvp7w5LW pic.twitter.com/B6ozh93Hdn
— Chris Geidner (@chrisgeidner) November 7, 2018
Notice Sessions’ language (emphasis mine): “At your request, I am submitting my resignation”. The letter is also undated, so it is unclear when it was first/actually written by Sessions, though it was submitted today.
Matt Whitacker, Attorney General Jeff Sessions Chief of Staff, has been announced by the President, by tweet, as the Acting Attorney General. Whitaker is the former US Attorney for the Southern District of Iowa and a failed Republican candidate for the US Senate from Iowa. He will now, as the Acting Attorney General, oversee Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation as he is not required to recuse himself as Sessions was. He did write an op-ed before he became Sessions’ Chief of Staff about how you could hamper the Special Counsel’s investigation. It is unclear if that could trigger a DOJ opinion that he also needs to recuse himself.
I have no idea what this will mean, in practical terms, for the Special Counsel’s investigation. I do expect that whatever Special Counsel Mueller was planning to do this week/in the short term will now be accelerated.
The effects of Sessions’ resignation and Whitaker’s elevation to Acting Attorney General will become clearer over the next 24 to 72 hours.
Open thread!
Breaking: Jeff Sessions Has Been Fired as Attorney GeneralPost + Comments (123)