Mark Wilson/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who has endured a rocky relationship with Donald Trump for months, has issued his strongest pushback yet against the president, saying in a statement the Department of Justice “will not be improperly influenced by political considerations.”
In an interview that aired on Fox Thursday morning, Trump took aim at Sessions, with whom he has waged both open and low-level warfare since the attorney general recused himself from the Russia probe.
“I said ‘What kind of a man is this?'” Trump said during the interview. The president also said Sessions failed to take control of the DOJ.
“The only reason I gave him the job I felt loyalty.”
Trump has also taken several shots at the Department of Justice under Sessions, who was one of Trump’s earliest supporters during the 2016 campaign, even putting quotation marks around the word “Justice.”
In today’s statement from Sessions, the attorney general said that he “took control of the Department of Justice the day I was sworn in, which is why we have had unprecedented success at effectuating the President’s agenda.”
“While I am Attorney General, the actions of the Department of Justice will not be improperly influenced by political considerations,” the statement read. “I demand the highest standards, and where they are not met, I take action.”
This is a developing story. Please check back in for updates.
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