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July 20, 2017

Trump Criticizes Attorney General Sessions over Russia Probe Recusal
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President Trump said Wednesday he never would have nominated Jeff
Sessions to be attorney general if he had known Sessions was going to
recuse himself from a Justice Department investigation into alleged ties
between Russia and Trump associates. The president made the remarks
during a wide-ranging interview in the Oval Office with The New York
Times.

President Donald Trump: "Jeff Sessions takes the job, gets into the job,
recuses himself. I then have-which-which, frankly, I think, is very
unfair to the president. How do you take a job and then recuse yourself?
If he would have recused himself before the job, I would have said,
'Thanks, Jeff, but I can't-you know, I'm not going to take you.' It's
extremely unfair-and that's a mild word-to the president."

President Trump also left open the possibility that he could order the
Justice Department to fire special counsel Robert Mueller, who's been
assigned to investigate Russia's role in the 2016 election. This is
Trump being questioned in the Oval Office by New York Times reporters.

Michael Schmidt: "If Mueller goes looking at your finances or your
family's finances unrelated to Russia, is that a red line?"

Maggie Haberman: "Would that be a breach of what his actual charge is?"

President Donald Trump: "I would say yeah. Yeah, I would say yes."

President Trump also characterized a second, previously undisclosed
meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Germany earlier this
month as a discussion about "pleasantries" that lasted just 15 minutes.
That contradicts reports that the two spoke for roughly an hour.