Attorney General Jeff Sessions offered to resign from his post amid rising tensions with President Trump, according to multiple reports.
The rift stems from Sessions’s decision in March to recuse himself from the probe of possible ties between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia, a decision Trump was unaware of until minutes before it occurred.
Sources told The New York Times Tuesday that Sessions offered to resign because he “needed the freedom to do his job,” but Trump didn’t take him up on the offer.
{mosads}Multiple sources told ABC that Sessions’s recusal remains one of the biggest disappointments to Trump during his presidency so far.
The New York Times reported Monday that Trump believes it led to the appointment of former FBI Director Robert Mueller as special counsel of the Russia investigations.
Trump has reportedly lashed out at Sessions in recent meetings, and on Monday fired off multiple tweets critical of the Justice Department.
A Justice spokeswoman declined to comment to ABC on whether Sessions had offered or threatened to resign.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer earlier Tuesday refused to say if Trump has full confidence in Sessions.
“I have not had discussions with him about that,” Spicer said during his daily press briefing. “If I have not had a discussion with him, I tend not to comment on it.”