--- title: Read Jeff Sessions' Resignation Letter to President Trump description: President Trump dropped a bombshell on Twitter Wednesday afternoon when he abruptly announced Jeff Sessions is out as U.S. attorney general. canonical: https://time.com/5448235/read-jeff-sessions-resignation-letter-trump/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-11-07T20:45:11.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T21:58:36.025Z article:section: Politics og:title: Read the Resignation Letter Attorney General Jeff Sessions Submitted to President Trump og:description: Trump dropped a bombshell Wednesday when he abruptly announced Jeff Sessions is out as U.S. attorney general og:url: https://time.com/5448235/read-jeff-sessions-resignation-letter-trump/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt01f0d2a92c87dbca/69893e85457a523aa1d5fd27/jeff-sessions-donald-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: COMBO-US-POLITICS-INVESTIGATION-RUSSIA og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Read the Resignation Letter Attorney General Jeff Sessions Submitted to President Trump twitter:description: Trump dropped a bombshell Wednesday when he abruptly announced Jeff Sessions is out as U.S. attorney general twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt01f0d2a92c87dbca/69893e85457a523aa1d5fd27/jeff-sessions-donald-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Read the Resignation Letter Attorney General Jeff Sessions Submitted to President Trump by [Kathy Ehrich Dowd](https://time.com/author/kathy-dowd/) ## Kathy Ehrich Dowd Nov 7, 2018 8:45 PM UTC  President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that Jeff Sessions resigned as U.S. attorney general President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that Jeff Sessions resigned as U.S. attorney generalSAUL LOEB—AFP/Getty Images by [Kathy Ehrich Dowd](https://time.com/author/kathy-dowd/) ## Kathy Ehrich Dowd Nov 7, 2018 8:45 PM UTC President Donald Trump dropped a bombshell on Twitter Wednesday afternoon when he abruptly announced [Jeff Sessions is out as U.S. attorney general](http://time.com/5448197/jeff-sessions-resigns/). Posting the tweet shortly after a long and fiery post-midterm elections press conference, Trump announced that Matthew G. Whitaker, Sessions’ chief of staff, would serve as acting attorney general, and that a permanent replacement would be announced “at a later date.” Sessions announced his resignation in a letter to Trump, according to the Associated Press and other outlets. The president has repeatedly criticized the former Alabama senator, who was one of Trump’s closest allies during the presidential campaign but angered Trump when he recused himself from the Mueller investigation shortly after becoming attorney general. In [Wednesday’s letter to the president](https://drive.google.com/file/d/12VgNDrboNzzQu1OWvRlT6ZYojgrYc45N/view), Sessions said the resignation came at “your request.” Read the full letter here: > [](https://twitter.com/woodruffbets/status/1060257611696795650) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5448235/read-jeff-sessions-resignation-letter-trump/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5448235/read-jeff-sessions-resignation-letter-trump/"},"headline":"Read the Resignation Letter Attorney General Jeff Sessions Submitted to President Trump","datePublished":"2018-11-07T20:45:11.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T21:58:36.025Z","description":"President Trump dropped a bombshell on Twitter Wednesday afternoon when he abruptly announced Jeff Sessions is out as U.S. attorney general.","url":"https://time.com/5448235/read-jeff-sessions-resignation-letter-trump/","keywords":["Donald Trump","Jeff Sessions","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt01f0d2a92c87dbca/69893e85457a523aa1d5fd27/jeff-sessions-donald-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Kathy Ehrich Dowd","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/kathy-dowd/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt01f0d2a92c87dbca/69893e85457a523aa1d5fd27/jeff-sessions-donald-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"COMBO-US-POLITICS-INVESTIGATION-RUSSIA","caption":"COMBO-US-POLITICS-INVESTIGATION-RUSSIA","creditText":"SAUL LOEB—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5448235/read-jeff-sessions-resignation-letter-trump/","name":"Read the Resignation Letter Attorney General Jeff Sessions Submitted to President Trump"}}]}] ```