This is just breaking.
Jeff Sessions has just resigned and Matthew Whitaker will become the acting Attorney General.
Here’s the announcement from Trump:
We are pleased to announce that Matthew G. Whitaker, Chief of Staff to Attorney General Jeff Sessions at the Department of Justice, will become our new Acting Attorney General of the United States. He will serve our Country well……..We thank Attorney General Jeff Sessions for his service, and wish him well! A permanent replacement will be nominated at a later date.
The tweets:
We are pleased to announce that Matthew G. Whitaker, Chief of Staff to Attorney General Jeff Sessions at the Department of Justice, will become our new Acting Attorney General of the United States. He will serve our Country well....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 7, 2018
....We thank Attorney General Jeff Sessions for his service, and wish him well! A permanent replacement will be nominated at a later date.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 7, 2018
According to Fox News, Trump asked Sessions for his resignation before he went out to speak at the press conference.
An interesting note on this is that Rosenstein was the deputy AG, but Whitaker was chosen to be the acting AG above him! Sounds like Rosenstein might be next…
UPDATE: According to Fox News they are hearing that Whitaker will take over the Russia investigation from Rosenstein! Others are hearing this as well:
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is no longer overseeing special counsel Mueller and the Russia investigation after the firing of Jeff Sessions. That job now falls to acting AG Matthew Whitaker
— Aaron Katersky (@AaronKatersky) November 7, 2018
Acting AG Matthew Whitaker will now be in ultimate charge of the Russia investigation, according to a doj official. Most big cases flow through DAG's office first and it's unclear how this will all be sorted out.
— Del Quentin Wilber (@DelWilber) November 7, 2018
Jeff Sessions had recused himself from oversight of the Russia probe, punting it down to Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein. As Acting AG, Whitaker has no such recusal and so is now in charge of overseeing Mueller, per NBC News.
— Jackson Proskow (@JProskowGlobal) November 7, 2018
Here’s the letter from Sessions:
