WASHINGTON – U.S. President Donald Trump has ousted Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a move that makes it easier for him to possibly fire the special counsel investigating his campaign’s relationship with Russia.Sessions submitted his resignation on Wednesday, the day after the midterm elections in which Trump’s party lost the House of Representatives. He told Trump he was resigning “at your request,” making clear he was effectively fired.He will be replaced, at least temporarily, by his chief of staff, Republican lawyer Matthew Whitaker — a former Republican political candidate who has publicly called for the special counsel probe to be limited.Subscribe to the Star to support our reporting on U.S. political news -- and what it means for Canada.Whitaker wrote an article for CNN last year in which he argued that special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation was on the verge of going too far, by delving into Trump’s finances, and that Mueller should be ordered to curtail his work. And he mused on television about slashing Mueller’s budget to a level “so low that his investigation grinds to almost a halt.”Sessions hired Whitaker a month after the CNN article came out.Read more:Trump says government will halt if Democrats investigate himOpinion | Bob Hepburn: Lessons for Canada in Trump setbackDemocrats win control of U.S. House, Republicans increase hold on SenateTrump had been furious with Sessions for recusing himself from the Russia investigation last March, a move that eventually led to the appointment of Mueller. Trump had blasted Sessions, the nation’s top law enforcement officer, in an unprecedented months-long series of angry tweets, public statements and private rants.Sessions, a right-wing former Alabama senator and federal prosecutor, was the first sitting member of the Senate to endorse Trump. Formerly on the political fringe, he used his job as head of the Department of Justice to ...
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