Attorney General Jeff Sessions resigned at Donald Trump’s request on Wednesday, according to a resignation letter he submitted to the president.
“I came to work at the Department of Justice every day determined to do my duty and serve my country,” wrote Sessions in the resignation letter that hit news outlets on Wednesday. “I have done so to the best of my ability, working to support the fundamental legal processes that are the foundation of justice.”
Trump confirmed in a tweet that Sessions would be replaced by his own chief of staff, Matthew G. Whitaker, until a permanent replacement is secured.
The resignation comes after months of the president’s relentless public criticism of the Attorney General, often in the form of tweets. Trump has slammed Sessions — who he appointed to the office — for recusing himself from the Special Counsel investigation into Russian election interference of which the president himself is a primary subject.
Sessions was a controversial law enforcement head for many reasons, but to the LGBTQ community he was considered just short of a mortal enemy. Whether by partnering with the SPLC-designated anti-LGBTQ hate group Alliance Defending Freedom, by passing “religious freedom” policies that LGBTQ advocates said were thinly disguised attacks on equality, or by fighting tooth and nail as a former senator to oppose the expansion of hate crimes law to protect LGBTQ people, Sessions seemed to have placed a target on the community.
Read Letter From the Attorn… by on Scribd
This is a developing story.
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