WASHINGTON, D.C. — Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the embattled top law enforcement officer in the country who has drawn the ire of President Donald Trump, is leaving the administration, the president said in a tweet Wednesday. Matthew G. Whitaker, Sessions’ chief of staff, will be the country’s acting attorney general until a permanent replacement is announced.

Sessions, a Trump ally who threw his weight behind the president in the 2016 election, recused himself in March 2017 from the probe investigating Russian interference in the presidential election and possible collusion by members of the Trump campaign. Sessions’ deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, appointed Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller to oversee the probe in May 2017 after Trump fired at-the-time FBI director James Comey.

Trump announced the news of Sessions leaving a day after Democrats took control of the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2018 midterm elections. With a majority in the House, Democrats control key committees that can investigate the president.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who is expected to be elected House Speaker when the new Congress begins business in January, said in a tweet it is “impossible to read Attorney General Sessions’ firing as anything other than another blatant attempt” by Trump to undermine and end Mueller’s investigation.

In a tweet Wednesday morning, Trump suggested that if House Democrats take on investigations, he would respond in kind with investigations at the Senate level “of the leaks of Classified Information, and much else.”

The announcement also comes after a long and at times confrontational press conference where Trump was asked about Sessions and Rosenstein and whether the two of them have long-term jobs.

“I’d rather answer that at a little bit different time,” Trump said, adding that he was very happy with most of his cabinet.

“We’re looking at different people for different positions,” Trump said. “You know it’s very common after the midterms.” Trump added that he “didn’t want to do anything” before the midterms.

After The New York Times reported in September that Rosenstein had considered secretly recording Trump and had discussed the possible use of the 25th Amendment to remove the president from office, the deputy attorney general had expected to resign or be fired, but has kept his job. When the question of Rosenstein’s future was in doubt, Whitaker, who is now the acting attorney general, was told he would become the No. 2 at the Justice Department, The Times reported.

An Iowa native, Whitaker was the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Iowa between 2004 and 2009, according to a biography compiled by The Des Moines Register. He ran for public office twice and has also been a private practice lawyer in Minnesota and Iowa, according to the Register.

Whitaker was inducted into the Iowa High School Football Hall of Fame and played football at the University of Iowa. The Register notes that Whitaker has been active in conservative politics for years and has said he is 100 percent pro-life and opposes amnesty for undocumented immigrants.

Read Sessions’ resignation letter below:

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Photo by Andrew Harnik/Associated Press

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