据报道，唐纳德·特朗普总统私下警告杰夫·赛辛斯，如果前司法部长选择在阿拉巴马州竞选参议员，他将公开攻击他。
特朗普迫使塞申斯退出政府，因为司法部长决定回避对穆勒调查的监督。
塞申斯因为参与特朗普2016年竞选而退出穆勒进程，这是特别顾问调查的焦点。
纽约时报报道称，特朗普上周向塞申斯发出了一条信息，警告他如果竞选阿拉巴马州的参议员席位，将遭到公开攻击。从1997年到2017年，他担任司法部长期间，阿拉巴马州的参议员席位曾被他占据了20年。
白宫没有立即做出回应新闻周刊的评论请求。
总统在花了近两年时间后，于2018年11月解雇了塞申斯公开批评他回避自己的决定。
“我没有司法部长。特朗普在解雇塞申斯前几个月接受希尔电视台采访时说:“这非常令人难过。
2018年2月，塞申斯在一份声明中为自己辩护，反对特朗普的批评。
塞申斯说:“只要我是司法部长，我将继续正直和光荣地履行我的职责，这个部门将继续根据法律和宪法以公平和公正的方式开展工作。”。
如果72岁的塞申斯真的选择在阿拉巴马州再次竞选共和党，冒着特朗普愤怒的风险这么做，他将与72岁的罗伊·摩尔对决。
在2017年取代塞申斯成为该州参议员的特别选举中，摩尔输给了民主党人道格·琼斯，原因是有人指控这位共和党人在30多岁时与几名未成年女孩发生了性关系，对此他予以否认。
摩尔和塞申斯的初选，如果没有其他候选人抢先获得提名，其中一人可能会获得提名，这可能会对共和党造成损害。选举是在2020年。
“即使他对2017年曝光的指控完全无辜，这一举动也表明阿拉巴马人永远不应该相信他的判断，他愿意把又一轮选举变成以自我为中心的马戏，”伯明翰的共和党政治顾问伊丽莎白·贝斯赫德(Elizabeth BeShears)告诉记者《纽约客》当时。"我希望摩尔被边缘化。"
这张于2018年8月1日创作的照片组合显示了美国总统唐纳德·特朗普(左)在2018年7月30日于DC华盛顿白宫东厅举行的联合记者招待会上，以及前美国司法部长杰夫·赛辛斯于2018年5月3日在DC华盛顿国家治安官协会阿片类药物圆桌会议上的讲话。
DONALD TRUMP WILL PUBLICLY ATTACK JEFF SESSIONS IN ALABAMA SENATE RACE AS GOP FEARS ROY MOORE COULD BECOME NOMINEE: REPORT
President Donald Trump has privately warned Jeff Sessions that he will publicly attack him if the former attorney general chooses to run for the Senate in Alabama, according to a report.
Trump forced Sessions out of the administration, enraged by the attorney general's decision to recuse himself from oversight of the Mueller investigation.
Sessions removed himself from the Mueller process because of his involvement in the Trump 2016 campaign, which was a focus of the special counsel's probe.
The New York Times reported that Trump sent a message to Sessions last week warning him of public attacks if he runs for Alabama's Senate seat, which he held held previously for 20 years, from 1997 to 2017 when he became attorney general.
The White House did not respond immediately to Newsweek's request for comment.
The president fired Sessions from the administration in November 2018 after spending nearly two years openly criticizing his decision to recuse himself.
"I don't have an attorney general. It's very sad," Trump told Hill TV in an interview a couple of months before he fired Sessions.
In February 2018, Sessions defended himself against Trump's criticisms in a statement.
"As long as I am the attorney general, I will continue to discharge my duties with integrity and honor, and this department will continue to do its work in a fair and impartial manner according to the law and Constitution," Sessions said.
If Sessions, 72, does choose to run again in Alabama for the GOP, and risk Trump's wrath in doing so, he will go up against Roy Moore, who is also 72.
In a 2017 special election to replace Sessions as the state's senator, Moore lost to the Democrat Doug Jones amid allegations that the Republican had been sexually inappropriate with several underage girls while in his thirties, which he denied.
A primary with Moore and Sessions, and potentially one of them taking the nomination if no other candidate scoops it ahead of them, has the potential to be a damaging affair for the Republican Party. The election is in 2020.
"Even if he's completely innocent of the accusations that came to light in 2017, this move is indicative of a person whose judgment Alabamians should never trust, who is willing to turn yet another election cycle into a self-centered circus," Elizabeth BeShears, a Republican political consultant in Birmingham, told The New Yorker at the time. "I hope Moore is relegated to the sidelines."
This combination of pictures created on August 1, 2018 shows US President Donald Trump (L) during a joint press conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, July 30, 2018, and former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions addressing the National Sheriffs' Association opioid roundtable in Washington, DC, on May 3, 2018.
