Jeff Sessions saw in the job a chance to defend the law's agenda and order

"Should we go, is it time? We are in no hurry, "said Sessions, who had just started eating ice cream, when his staff had asked him to leave. "Everyone here is so nice. This means that you do not want to go back to Washington.

This would be his last full day as Attorney General. President Trump requested his resignation less than 24 hours later, ending a term in which he had fought to establish the law and order agenda at the Ministry of Justice. Justice against a cascade of presidential criticism for his challenge as a result of the investigation led by the special adviser in Russia. Trump administration.

Mr. Sessions departed from the investigation early in his tenure, citing his own close ties to the Trump campaign, an action that undermined his relationship with the President and, in a sense, distanced from the department he supervised.

Leaving his deputy, Rod Rosenstein, to navigate the political pitfalls of the investigation into Russia, Mr. Sessions focused on guns, drugs, gangs, violent crime and immigration with less of distraction or control that he might otherwise receive. He has often traveled to defend his agenda, often from groups of police who have become one of his most loyal supporters. He received a standing ovation from a group of police officers during a speech on Tuesday, when he thanked them – "on behalf of President Trump".

Mr. Sessions' agenda was one he had coined as a federal prosecutor in Mobile, Alberta, at the height of the war on drugs in the 1980s, and loved him so much. attractive. Mr. Sessions, who for two decades was Republican US Senator from Alabama, was the first major financial supporter to back Trump's candidacy for the presidency; they adhered to their intransigent approach to immigration and urban crime.

He felt that running the Justice Department was a chance to make progress on issues he had long defended.

Mr. Sessions said he found Mr. Trump's attacks hurtful, but he continued to implement the President's program by congratulating him.

"He stood firm, did his job with great grace and a sense of extraordinary humor," said Edwin Meese, Attorney General of President Ronald Reagan and close friend of Mr. Sessions.

The Liberals in his program were worried, saying his focus on aggressive drug prosecutions was a return to missed tactics that hurt minorities and the poor unjustly. They said his focus on Christian rights was at the expense of gay and transgender protections.

Other critics, including in the Justice Department, said that its goal was not sophisticated, given the country's emergence of counterintelligence and terrorist threats.

Mr. Sessions' visit to Quantico's crime lab included the homemade bombs sent last month to prominent Democrats and the weapons used in the massacre that claimed the lives of 11 people in a synagogue. Pittsburgh.

He interviewed the directors of the laboratory on the quality of DNA and fingerprint evidence and on the consistency of their work with that of national and local authorities.

"A confession is not only beneficial for the soul, but also for the criminal justice system," he said during an interview with the directors of the crime lab, a quick summary of his philosophy. He chatted with the officials for several hours before his staff indicated that it was time to leave.

"It was so much fun," he said. "This group was energizing. Let me just tell you.

Around 5:30 pm Wednesday, Mr. Sessions thanked his staff and said he was pleased to have guided the Department of Justice in the right direction, according to one person present.

By nightfall, more than 150 people had gathered in the yard while he was going out for the last time. To the applause, he shook hands with Mr. Rosenstein and other senior officials, including his own chief of staff, Matthew Whitaker, who was chosen to succeed him. He waved his hand and raised his thumb, then climbed into a sluggish black and black Suburban and left.

Write to Sadie Gurman at [email protected]