Trump and Sessions
Trump and SessionsReuters

US media outlets have reported that there has been tension between US President Donald Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions recently.

According to reports, the selection of the new FBI Director, Christopher A. Wray, was made by Trump without consulting Sessions. Sessions was reportedly asked to interview several candidates for the job - and he did - but Wray was not one of them.

Trump met Wray yesterday (Tuesday) and announced that he had chosen him for the job less than a day later.

A senior administration official told ABC yesterday that at one point Sessions said he was willing to resign if Trump did not want him to continue. However, CNN reported today from an official spokeswoman at the Justice Ministry that Sessions is not planning to resign.

Yesterday afternoon, White House spokesman Sean Spicer was asked if the president had confidence in Sessions. He said he had not spoken to the president about this issue and therefore could not answer. His answer was interpreted as an evasion that indicated that there was indeed a tension between Trump and Sessions.

According to reports, Trump was furious when Sessions disqualified himself from dealing with suspicions of improper connections between Trump and Russia. The issue was then handled by his deputy, Rod Rosenstein, who appointed former FBI chief Robert Müller as a special counsel to investigate allegations of links between Trump and the Russians. Trump responded angrily to this decision.

Former FBI chief James Comey, who was fired last month, is expected to testify before the Senate on Thursday. Trump said that he had planned Comey for a while before doing so in an interview with NBC News.