Attorney General Jeff Sessions told the White House he may quit if his second-in-command, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, is fired by President Trump, The Washington Post reported Friday evening. Because Sessions has recused himself from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe, Rosenstein oversees it, which has made him a target of the president's ire.
Trump's interest in firing Rosenstein has been rumored for months. Sessions reportedly made his show of support for Rosenstein in a phone call with White House Counsel Don McGahn last weekend.
One of the Post's sources said the message was not a threat but a communication of "the untenable position that Rosenstein's firing would" create for Sessions in an already tumultuous administration. Sessions himself has been in Trump's crosshairs in the past, reportedly as recently as this month.