Report: trump told counsel to stop jeff sessions from recusing himself in russia probe

In March, President Trump told White House Counsel Don McGahn to stop Attorney General Jeff Sessions from recusing himself from the Justice Department's investigation into Russian

meddling in the 2016 presidential election, _The New York Times_ reports. Two people with knowledge of the meeting told the _Times_ that when McGahn spoke with Sessions, the attorney general

told him he had made up his mind in February to recuse himself, after conferring with others in the Justice Department. When McGahn told Trump he had been unsuccessful in trying to sway

Sessions, Trump was furious and said he needed an attorney general who would protect him, the _Times_ reports. Sessions recused himself that month and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein

appointed Special Counsel Robert Mueller in May. The _Times_ also learned that Mueller has received handwritten notes from former White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, stating that

Trump talked to him about how he called former FBI Director James Comey to urge him to announce publicly that he was not under investigation; that one of McGahn's deputies, concerned

about what might happen if Trump fired Comey, at one point misled the president about his authority to fire the FBI director; and that just days before Comey was fired in May, one of

Sessions' aides asked a congressional staffer if he had any information on Comey that could hurt him, as Sessions wanted to see negative stories about Comey in the news every day. Read

the entire report at _The New York Times._ SUBSCRIBE TO THE WEEK Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives. SUBSCRIBE & SAVE SIGN

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