Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Wednesday warned President Trump against interfering with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s election meddling now that Attorney General Jeff Sessions has left the Justice Department.
“President Trump must allow Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation to continue unimpeded,” Sanders tweeted Wednesday along with an article regarding Sessions’s ouster.
Sessions resigned Wednesday after months of criticism and insults from Trump.
{mosads}“I came to work at the Department of Justice every day determined to do my duty and serve my country,” Sessions wrote in his resignation letter, obtained by The Hill.
“I have done so to the best of my ability, working to support the fundamental legal processes that are the foundation of justice.”
The Justice Department promptly released a statement saying that Matthew Whitaker would serve as acting attorney general, including taking oversight of Mueller’s probe, control of which was given to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein when Sessions recused himself because of his role in Trump’s campaign.
During a press conference Wednesday before Sessions’s resignation was announced, Trump said he has no intention to end Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s 2016 interference and any possible coordination with the Trump campaign.
“I could fire everybody right now, but I don’t want to stop it because, politically, I don’t like stopping it,” Trump said.
“I let it just go on,” he added. “They’re wasting a lot of money, but I let it go on because I don’t want to do that.”
“It’s a disgrace, frankly, and it’s an embarrassment to our country.”
Republicans have ripped the probe as being politically motivated, but have urged Trump not to put an end to it before Mueller makes his conclusions known.
Democrats have likewise encouraged Trump not to end the investigation and argued that doing so would qualify as obstruction of justice.
Mueller’s team has indicted or secured guilty pleas from 32 people and companies so far.