Trump repeatedly pressured Sessions to reclaim control of Russia probe: report

President Trump reportedly pressured Attorney General Jeff Sessions at least four times last year to retake control of the investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. 

Axios reported on Thursday that three of those times were in person, while one attempt happened during a phone call. 

The president never explicitly ordered Sessions to reclaim control of the probe, according to the Axios report, though he repeatedly asked Sessions if he had “thought about” it.

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Trump also reportedly told Sessions that he would be a “hero” to conservatives if he stepped back in to the Russia investigation and launched a probe into former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. 

One source told Axios that the president’s conversations with Sessions about un-recusing himself happened throughout the year, until fairly late in 2017. 

The New York Times reported this week on one such attempt by Trump during a dinner with Sessions in March 2017, in which the president reportedly told Sessions to reverse his recusal.

The other three attempts have not been previously reported. 

Sessions stepped aside from the Russia investigation in March 2017, citing his role in the Trump campaign as a potential conflict of interest.

That decision put Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in control of the probe. Rosenstein appointed special counsel Robert Mueller to carry out the investigation in May, after Trump fired former FBI Director James Comey.

Trump has fumed both publicly and privately over Sessions’s recusal. On Wednesday, Trump issued his latest rebuke of Sessions, saying that he wished he had chosen someone else to serve as his attorney general.