--- title: Donald Trump Says He Wishes He Hadn't Picked Jeff Sessions description: President Donald Trump once again vented his frustration at Attorney General Jeff Sessions, saying he wished he hadn't picked him. canonical: https://time.com/5295164/donald-trump-tweets-jeff-sessions-attorney-general-recusal/ author: Michael Zennie article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-05-30T13:07:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T20:25:05.983Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Says He Wishes He Hadn't Picked Jeff Sessions og:description: "There are lots of really good lawyers in the country, he could have picked somebody else!" og:url: https://time.com/5295164/donald-trump-tweets-jeff-sessions-attorney-general-recusal/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfcbff27f1e9098b8/69892b1be76ad25da563168b/gettyimages-893531150.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: US-POLITICS-TRUMP og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Says He Wishes He Hadn't Picked Jeff Sessions twitter:description: "There are lots of really good lawyers in the country, he could have picked somebody else!" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfcbff27f1e9098b8/69892b1be76ad25da563168b/gettyimages-893531150.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Says He Wishes He Hadn't Picked Jeff Sessions for Attorney General  by [Michael Zennie](https://time.com/author/michael-zennie/)  ## Michael Zennie May 30, 2018 1:07 PM UTC  US President Donald Trump(L)sits with Attorney General Jeff Sessions on December 15, 2017 in Quantico, Virginia, before participating in the FBI National Academy graduation ceremony. / AFP PHOTO / Nicholas Kamm (Photo credit should read NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images) US President Donald Trump(L)sits with Attorney General Jeff Sessions on December 15, 2017 in Quantico, Virginia, before participating in the FBI National Academy graduation ceremony. / AFP PHOTO / Nicholas Kamm (Photo credit should read NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)NICHOLAS KAMM—AFP/Getty Images  by [Michael Zennie](https://time.com/author/michael-zennie/)  ## Michael Zennie May 30, 2018 1:07 PM UTC President Donald Trump once again vented his frustration at Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Twitter – this time saying he wished he hadn’t picked the former Alabama Senator to lead the Justice Department. In a series of tweets on Wednesday morning, Trump quoted a [Fox News interview](http://insider.foxnews.com/2018/05/29/donald-trump-russia-probe-gowdy-says-he-should-be-upset-democrats-obama-not-fbi) with House Oversight Chairman Trey Gowdy in which the Republican Congressman said: “I think what the President is doing is expressing frustration that Attorney General Sessions should have shared these reasons for recusal before he took the job, not afterward. “If I were the President and I picked someone to be the country’s chief law enforcement officer, and they told me later, ‘Oh by the way I’m not going to be able to participate in the most important case in the office,’ I would be frustrated too and that’s how I read that. ‘Senator Sessions, why didn’t you tell me before I picked you.’ There are lots of really good lawyers in the country, he could have picked somebody else!” > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1001807174249713664) > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1001807204519997442) > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1001807216297627648) Trump added, “And I wish I did!” The tweets come after the [New York _Times_](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/29/us/politics/trump-sessions-obstruction.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news) reported that Trump tried to get Sessions to reverse his [decision to recuse himself](http://time.com/4689960/jeff-sessions-russia-recuse-donald-trump/) in Robert Mueller’s Russia probe, which could be key in the investigation into whether the President obstructed justice. Sessions’ recusal last March, which was based on contact with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. that he failed to disclose during his confirmation hearing, has been a [constant point of contention](http://time.com/5220086/jeff-sessions-is-winning-for-donald-trump-if-only-he-can-keep-his-job/) with Trump during Mueller’s year-long investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Trump has publicly mused about firing Sessions in the past and Sessions has called the President’s criticism [“kind of hurtful.”](http://time.com/4877246/jeff-sessions-donald-trump-fox-news-interview/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5295164/donald-trump-tweets-jeff-sessions-attorney-general-recusal/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5295164/donald-trump-tweets-jeff-sessions-attorney-general-recusal/"},"headline":"President Trump Says He Wishes He Hadn't Picked Jeff Sessions for Attorney General","datePublished":"2018-05-30T13:07:12.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T20:25:05.983Z","description":"\"There are lots of really good lawyers in the country, he could have picked somebody else!\"","url":"https://time.com/5295164/donald-trump-tweets-jeff-sessions-attorney-general-recusal/","keywords":["Donald Trump","photography","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfcbff27f1e9098b8/69892b1be76ad25da563168b/gettyimages-893531150.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Michael Zennie","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/michael-zennie/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfcbff27f1e9098b8/69892b1be76ad25da563168b/gettyimages-893531150.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US-POLITICS-TRUMP","caption":"US-POLITICS-TRUMP","creditText":"NICHOLAS KAMM—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/5295164/donald-trump-tweets-jeff-sessions-attorney-general-recusal/","name":"President Trump Says He Wishes He Hadn't Picked Jeff Sessions for Attorney General"}}]}] ```