The real reason Jeff Sessions is suddenly threatening to resign

| 8:50 pm EDT April 20, 2018
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Attorney General Jeff Sessions plays a surreal role in that he’s utterly despised by those who want Donald Trump ousted from power, yet Trump’s ouster is at least partially dependent upon Sessions remaining on the job. Sessions has endured significant public and private abuse from Trump, making clear that he wants to keep the job. Yet now Sessions is suddenly threatening to resign, raising questions about what role he’s really playing in all this.

Jeff Sessions recused himself from the Trump-Russia investigation very early on, thus handing authority over the investigation to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. After Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, Rosenstein appointed Special Counsel Robert Mueller to take over the probe. This means that Rosenstein is the only person who can fire Mueller, and Trump would have to fire Rosenstein to have any chance of getting rid of Mueller. In the process Trump would also have to fire Sessions.

If that sounds complicated, that’s because it is complicated. The short of it is if Sessions remains on the job, it’s harder for Trump to fire Mueller. Over the past year-plus we’ve seen that Trump very much wants Sessions gone, but is too afraid to fire him. Lately Trump has been hinting that he wants to fire Rosenstein in the hope of crippling the Mueller investigation. Yet now Sessions is telling Trump that if Rosenstein is fired, he’ll resign too. Why would Sessions do this?

We don’t know precisely why Donald Trump is so afraid of losing Jeff Sessions, a guy he clearly hates. We do know that Sessions is facing potentially serious legal jeopardy for having lied under oath about his meetings with Russia during the election, as well as whatever illegal conspiring or coordinating he carried out with Russia during those meetings. Most likely, Trump fears that if Sessions loses his Attorney General job, he’ll no longer have any reason to remain loyal to Trump, and he’ll run straight to Mueller and cut a plea deal.

So this reads like a power play on Jeff Sessions’ part. He’s putting his foot down and demanding that Donald Trump keep Rod Rosenstein on the job. This is remarkable, considering that in so doing, Sessions is ensuring that Robert Mueller remains on the job and gets to keep taking Trump down. It’s the latest evidence that Sessions plans to ultimately cooperate with Mueller in the hope of avoiding prison time – that is, of course, if Sessions hasn’t secretly cut a deal with Mueller already.