Attorney General Jeff Sessions told the White House last weekend that he would quit if President Donald Trump fired Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who is overseeing the Russia probe headed by special counsel Robert Mueller, The Washington Post reported Friday.
The Post cited "people familiar with the exchange," saying that Sessions disclosed his position in a telephone call to White House counsel Donald McGahn.
However, "another person familiar with the exchange said Sessions did not intend to threaten the White House but rather wanted to convey the untenable position that Rosenstein's firing would put him in."
Besides appointing Mueller last year after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, Rosenstein also approved the April 9 raid on the Manhattan offices of President Trump's longtime personal attorney, Michael Cohen.
Trump slammed the raid as a "disgrace" and also bashed it on Twitter.
A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment on the Post's report.
According to the newspaper, Sessions sought details from McGhan of an April 12 meeting between Trump and Rosenstein held at the White House.
Sessions — according to "a person with knowledge of the call" — expressed "relief" to McGhan that the meeting was "largely cordial," the Post reported.
"Sessions said he would have had to consider leaving as the attorney general had Trump ousted Rosenstein," the person told the newspaper.
Trump has regularly attacked Sessions, 71, a former five-term Alabama Republican senator, since recusing himself from the Russia investigation last year.
President Trump has repeatedly said that he had no plans to fire Rosenstein or Mueller, telling reporters at Mar-a-Lago on Wednesday: "They've been saying I'm going to get rid of them for the last three months, four months, five months — and they're still here.
"We want to get the investigation over with, done with, put it behind us," the president said of the Moscow probe. "We have to get back to business."
Bloomberg News also reported Thursday that Rosenstein told Trump last week that he was not a target of any part of Mueller's investigation or the Cohen inquiry.
Rosenstein's status remained uncertain on Friday, but more than 800 former Justice Department employees have called on Congress in an open letter to "swiftly and forcefully respond to protect the founding principles of our Republic and the rule of law" if Trump fired him or Mueller, the Post reported.
For his part, Rosenstein has largely remained private on the issue and has not sought out surrogates or any other advocates.
"I think he tends to view things in a very long-range way, kind of a this-too-shall-pass philosophy about the slings and arrows that will come at you," James Trusty, a partner at the Washington-based Ifrah Law Firm and a Rosenstein friend, told the Post.
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