WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on President Donald Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions (all times local):
6:55 p.m.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions is pushing back against President Donald Trump for saying Sessions’ response to Republican complaints about the FBI was “disgraceful.”
Sessions is giving no suggestion he would step down in light of the charge made on Twitter and insists he will “continue to discharge my duties with integrity and honor.”
Sessions suggested Tuesday that the Justice Department’s inspector general will evaluate whether prosecutors and FBI agents wrongly obtained a warrant under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to monitor the communications of a onetime Trump campaign associate. Trump tweeted that Sessions’ remarks were ” DISGRACEFUL!”
Sessions answered hours later, saying his department had taken the appropriate step and “will continue to do its work in a fair and impartial manner according to the law and Constitution.”
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1:45 p.m.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions is defending himself against President Donald Trump’s attacks about how the nation’s top law enforcement official is handling Republican complaints about the Russia investigation.
Sessions rarely stands up in public to criticism from his boss. But this time, Sessions is fighting back, saying he’s done the right thing by referring allegations of FBI surveillance abuse to the Justice Department’s internal watchdog.
And Sessions says in a public statement that “as long as I am the attorney general, I will continue to discharge my duties with integrity and honor.”
Earlier Wednesday, Trump said Sessions’ decision to rely on the department’s inspector general for the review was “disgraceful” — and claimed that the inquiry would “take forever.” Trump said he preferred that Justice Department lawyers handle the matter.
But Sessions says “we have initiated the appropriate process that will ensure complaints against this department will be fully and fairly acted upon if necessary.”
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10:35 a.m.
President Donald Trump says his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, isn’t doing enough to investigate whether the FBI abused government surveillance powers in the Russia probe.
Sessions has said the Justice Department’s inspector general will evaluate whether prosecutors and agents abused the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in obtaining a warrant to monitor the communications of a onetime Trump associate.
Trump’s taken to Twitter to question why Sessions is relying on the department’s internal watchdog “to investigate potentially massive FISA abuse.” Trump believes the inspector general will “take forever, has no prosecutorial power and already late with reports on Comey etc. … Why not use Justice Department lawyers? DISGRACEFUL!”
A separate review of the FBI’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation under former Director James Comey is not late.
