WASHINGTON(TIP): President Donald Trump on Wednesday, November 7,  sacked US Attorney General Jeff Sessions, virtually taking operational control of a sensitive probe into foreign interference in the 2016 election and the possibility of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

For months, Trump publicly attacked Sessions for recusing himself from overseeing the probe in 2017 and blamed his decision for allowing Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to appoint a special counsel.

Trump said Sessions will be temporarily replaced by his chief of staff, Matthew Whitaker, who is a Republican loyalist. Now, with Whitaker at the helm, Trump has someone leading the Justice Department who has already suggested that Mueller’s probe should be reined in.

CBS News reported that Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein is no longer leading the Mueller inquiry, and that Whitaker will now assume control.

In a tweet on Wednesday Trump said: “We are pleased to announce that Matthew G Whitaker, Chief of Staff to Attorney General Jeff Sessions at the Department of Justice, will become our new Acting Attorney General of the US. He will serve our country well (sic).”

“We thank Attorney General Jeff Sessions for his service and wish him well! A permanent replacement will be nominated at a later date,” he tweeted.

Observers opine that Trump’s move will have potential implication on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe as Whitaker has been overtly critical of the Mueller’s team to investigate beyond allegations Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia in 2016 and other ties between the President, his family and aides, and Kremlin.

Questions are also being raised about the validity of appointment of Whitaker as Acting Attorney General.

Meanwhile, thousands, on November 8, took to streets asking Whitaker to recuse himself from Mueller investigation.

The coming days are likely to witness an interesting tug of war between Republicans and Democrats on the issue of Mueller Investigation.

New York Attorney Ravi Batra described Jeff Sessions as a man of honor.

“Attorney General Jeff Sessions is a man of honor – he honored his oath to the Constitution, and then he honored the president of the United States in faithfully discharging the laws of the United States. The uncomfortable tension between the attorney general and the president speaks to American exceptionalism. Indeed, it is dissent itself that serves to ‘check and balance’, so that we may form a more perfect nation.”