Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt directly asked President Trump to fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions and temporarily appoint him to the post, CNN reported Tuesday.
Pruitt made the request during an Oval Office meeting this spring, telling Trump that he would lead the Justice Department for 120 days under the Vacancies Reform Act and then run for office in Oklahoma, according to CNN.
The outlet reported that Trump’s advisers rejected Pruitt’s request.
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Trump has been publicly angry with Sessions over his decision to recuse himself from the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
The president tweeted in May that he wished he hadn’t picked Sessions as attorney general.
It has been previously reported that Pruitt, who was previously the attorney general of Oklahoma, is interested in the top law enforcement job.
The request came as Trump’s frustrations with Sessions resurfaced and as Pruitt faced a series of emerging scandals surrounding his ethics.
Pruitt is facing a series of probes into his ethical behavior, including his use of taxpayer-funded security for trips to Disneyland and the Rose Bowl and his rental of a condo for $50 a night from the wife of an energy lobbyist.
The top ethics official at the EPA over the weekend called for an investigation into Pruitt.
Trump said last month that he thinks Pruitt is doing a “fantastic job” but that he’s “not happy” about some of the scandals surrounding the official.