Giuliani says he’s counseled Trump against firing Sessions

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s lawyer has repeatedly counseled him not to fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions despite the president’s ongoing anger at the attorney general’s decision to recuse himself from the Russia probe.

Rudy Giuliani told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Trump has asked him multiple times, before and after the former New York City mayor joined the president’s legal team last month, about whether Sessions should have been fired.

“I don’t think the president should do it and I’ve told him so,” said Giuliani.

Giuliani said Trump consulted him last summer during the height of his rage about Sessions’ recusal. More recently, he said, Trump has not actively considered firing Sessions, but has wondered if he made the right decision in not doing so previously.

“And when he asks ‘Should I have done that?’ I say ‘No, the way it is now has worked out’,” Giuliani said.

The former mayor added that he did not believe Trump would fire Sessions. The president’s anger at Sessions, who was the first senator to endorse his fledgling presidential campaign and has remained a loyal supporter, comes from the attorney general’s move last year to recuse himself from the probe, a move Sessions said was in line with Department of Justice guidelines but Trump believes birthed the investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller that is imperiling his presidency.

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Trump’s anger remains unabated and he suggested on Twitter again Wednesday that he wishes he had never offered the job to Sessions. Giuliani stressed that Trump had every right — whether in person or on social media — to “express how he feels” about Sessions but suggested it was a distraction to his legal team’s efforts to fight back against the ongoing investigation.

“Instead of talking about Sessions, we want to be talking about Comey and Mueller,” said Giuliani, invoking the former FBI director and the special counsel. “Public opinion is turning our way; we’ve had a great turnaround on this. We should be focused on that.”

Some in Trump’s inner circle have advised him against firing the attorney general because it could further ratchet up the pressure in the probe as well as alienate a portion of the president’s conservative base who have cheered Sessions’ moves at the Justice Department. Moreover, a number of Sessions’ former Republican colleagues in the Senate have suggested they would not hold confirmation hearings for a replacement attorney general.