Publicly assailed by Trump, Sessions says he’s staying on

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Jeff Sessions, publicly skewered by his boss for stepping clear of the Russia-Trump investigations, declared Thursday he still loves his job and plans to stay on. Yet Donald Trump’s airing of his long-simmering frustrations with Sessions raised significant new questions about the future of the nation’s top prosecutor.

The White House was quick to insist that the president “has confidence” in Sessions.

However, the episode underscored how the attorney general’s crime-fighting agenda is being overshadowed by his fractured relationship with Trump and the continuing investigations into allegations of Russian ties to the Republican candidate’s presidential campaign.

The challenges for Sessions were laid bare Thursday when the attorney general, at a Justice Department news conference to announce the takedown of a mammoth internet drug marketplace, faced zero questions about that case and was instead grilled on his reaction to being excoriated by Trump in a New York Times interview a day earlier.

The news conference on the drug case was quickly ended once it was clear reporters would only ask about the interview.

Sessions did not directly address his relationship to Trump except to say he was still carrying out the agenda of the president.

“I have the honor of serving as attorney general. It’s something that goes beyond any thought I would have ever had for myself,” Sessions said. “We love this job, we love this department and I plan to continue to do so as long as that is appropriate.”

Asked how he could effectively serve if he didn’t have Trump’s confidence, he responded, “We’re serving right now. The work we’re doing today is the kind of work we intend to continue.”

Asked at the White House about Trump’s feelings on Sessions, spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, “Clearly, he has confidence in him or he would not be the attorney general.”