--- title: Donald Trump Slams Jeff Sessions Over Recusal Decision description: President Trump said he regrets appointing Jeff Sessions and would have never done so had he known that Sessions would recuse himself canonical: https://time.com/4865764/president-donald-trump-jeff-sessions-new-york-times-interview/ author: Aric Jenkins article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-07-20T00:25:54.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T16:38:00.673Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Says He Wouldn't Have Hired Sessions Had He Known About Russia Recusal og:description: He called the recusal "very unfair to the President" og:url: https://time.com/4865764/president-donald-trump-jeff-sessions-new-york-times-interview/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf92ad1668f163a0c/6988d6687cdbac5295d5946c/trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: TOPSHOT-US-POLITICS-ELECTIONS-TRUMP og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Says He Wouldn't Have Hired Sessions Had He Known About Russia Recusal twitter:description: He called the recusal "very unfair to the President" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf92ad1668f163a0c/6988d6687cdbac5295d5946c/trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Says He Wouldn't Have Hired Jeff Sessions If He Had Known About Russia Recusal > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Aric Jenkins](https://time.com/author/aric-jenkins/) ## Aric Jenkins Jul 20, 2017 12:25 AM UTC  President Donald Trump leaves after speaking during the first meeting of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next to the White House in Washington on July 19, 2017. President Donald Trump leaves after speaking during the first meeting of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next to the White House in Washington on July 19, 2017. Saul Loeb—AFP/Getty Images by [Aric Jenkins](https://time.com/author/aric-jenkins/) ## Aric Jenkins Jul 20, 2017 12:25 AM UTC In a stunning admission, President Donald Trump said in an interview that he regrets appointing [Attorney General Jeff Sessions](http://time.com/4816993/jeff-sessions-testimony-russia-collusion/) and would have never done so had he known that Sessions would recuse himself from the Russia investigation, saying the decision was “very unfair to the president.” “Sessions should have never recused himself and if he was going to recuse himself he should have told me before he took the job and I would have picked somebody else,” Trump [said Wednesday in a wide-ranging interview with the New York _Times_.](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/19/us/politics/trump-interview-sessions-russia.html?smid=tw-share) Despite Sessions endorsing Trump back in February 2016 as the then-candidate was battling Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Chris Christie in the Republican primary, the President has apparently grown weary with the Attorney General, saying his recusal unnecessarily prompted the appointment of a special counsel into the Russia probe [still clouding the Trump administration](http://time.com/4865687/donald-trump-jr-paul-manafort-senate-judiciary-russia/). At the time of the endorsement, Trump [said of Sessions](http://www.politico.com/story/2016/02/sen-jeff-sessions-endorses-trump-219939): “I have a man who is respected by everybody here, greatly respected.” The Department of Justice did not return a request for comment. Trump’s criticism of public officials didn’t stop there, as he once again targeted former FBI Director [James Comey](http://time.com/4852242/james-comey-classified-memo-daniel-richman/), whom the President abruptly fired in May. In a brand new accusation, Trump said that Comey used a dossier with salacious material against the President as leverage so that Comey could keep his job. And Trump fired a warning at special counsel [Robert Mueller](http://time.com/4844742/robert-mueller-probe-russia-organized-crime/), who is currently leading the FBI’s Russia probe, saying that an investigation into Trump’s family finances would cross a red line, the _Times_ said. “I think that’s a violation. Look, this is about Russia,” Trump said, though he refused to say if he would do anything about it should Mueller choose to investigate in that direction. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4865764/president-donald-trump-jeff-sessions-new-york-times-interview/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4865764/president-donald-trump-jeff-sessions-new-york-times-interview/"},"headline":"President Trump Says He Wouldn't Have Hired Jeff Sessions If He Had Known About Russia Recusal","datePublished":"2017-07-20T00:25:54.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T16:38:00.673Z","description":"The President also fired shots at James Comey and Special Counsel Robert Mueller","url":"https://time.com/4865764/president-donald-trump-jeff-sessions-new-york-times-interview/","keywords":["White House","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf92ad1668f163a0c/6988d6687cdbac5295d5946c/trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Aric Jenkins","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/aric-jenkins/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf92ad1668f163a0c/6988d6687cdbac5295d5946c/trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"TOPSHOT-US-POLITICS-ELECTIONS-TRUMP","caption":"TOPSHOT-US-POLITICS-ELECTIONS-TRUMP","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/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4865764/president-donald-trump-jeff-sessions-new-york-times-interview/","name":"President Trump Says He Wouldn't Have Hired Jeff Sessions If He Had Known About Russia Recusal"}}]}] ```