Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions is standing by his 2017 decision to recuse himself from the Justice Department-led Russia investigation — explaining himself in an open letter as the Senate hopeful works to win over Trump loyalists in a heated Senate primary race.
Sessions, a former Alabama senator running to reclaim his seat after being fired as attorney general, maintained his loyalty to President Trump in the letter despite the commander-in-chief’s ramped-up attacks on his former ally.
“I was the first to endorse President Trump, even when many thought I was nuts to do so. I helped Trump win and traveled the country with him, embedded in his campaign. I am one of the architects of his agenda, and I was pushing his agenda even before he ran for office,” the Alabama Republican wrote at the start of his letter.
Sessions went on to defend his recusal, while acknowledging Trump’s disapproval.
“As the world knows, the President disagreed with me on recusal, but I did what the law required me to do. I was a central figure in the campaign and was also a subject of and witness in the investigation and could obviously not legally be involved in investigating myself,” he wrote. “If I had ignored and broken the law, the Democrats would have used that to severely damage the President.”
At the end of his letter, Sessions told Alabamians that they could support him and still stand by the president.
“We will vote overwhelmingly to give President Trump a second term, and we will choose who we send to the Senate. The people of Alabama do not have to choose between voting for the President and voting for me, they can do both.”
Trump has called naming Sessions attorney general “the biggest mistake” of his presidency. He fired Sessions in November 2018.
Since Sessions announced his Senate bid, the commander-in-chief has been steadfast in attacking his former ally and praising his primary rival, former college football coach Tommy Tuberville.
Sessions and Tuberville finished neck and neck in the GOP primary in March. The two will vie in a runoff election in July to determine who will be the GOP nominee to face Democratic Sen. Doug Jones in November.
As part of Trump’s efforts to support Tuberville, whom he endorsed over Sessions in early March after the runoff was announced, the president’s re-election campaign instructed Sessions to stop calling himself a Trump ally.
Trump re-election campaign chief operating officer Michael Glassner wrote a letter to Sessions in early April after the Senate hopeful sent out a campaign mailer referencing his support for the president. The letter told Sessions in no uncertain terms that the support was not reciprocated.
“We only assume your campaign is doing this to confuse President Trump’s loyal supporters in Alabama into believing the president supports your candidacy in the upcoming primary run-off election. Nothing could be further from the truth,” Glassner’s letter read.
Referring to the mailer, which the New York Times reports referenced Trump 22 times, Glassner remarked that Sessions’ campaign “makes the delusional assertion that you are ‘Trump’s #1 Supporter.'”
“President Trump and his campaign do not support your efforts to return to the U.S. Senate. We demand that you and your campaign immediately stop circulating mailers — or any other similar communication — that wrongly suggest otherwise,” he added.