President Donald Trump says he wouldn't have appointed Jeff Sessions as attorney general had he known Sessions would recuse himself from the probe into Russian interference into the presidential election.
Trump made the comment Wednesday in an interview with The New York Times.
Federal and congressional investigators are currently looking into Russian attempts to influence the 2016 election and whether the Trump campaign colluded with the Kremlin.
Sessions, who had been an advisor to the Trump campaign, recused himself in March from any probes related to the campaign.
He has insisted that he did so only because of his role within the presidential campaign.
During his confirmation hearing, Sessions appeared to mislead senators about his contacts with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Sessions has said his contact with Kislyak was not related to the campaign, but was part of his duties as a then-senator.
Trump also said in the Times interview that special counsel Robert Mueller would be crossing a red line if he expanded the investigation to look at Trump family finances beyond ties to Russia, the news outlet reported.
"I think that's a violation. Look, this is about Russia," Trump said, according to the report.
The Justice Department appointed Mueller as special counsel in May. That followed Trump's abrupt firing of James Comey from his post as FBI director. The president later said he did so while thinking about the "Russia thing."
Trump has repeatedly called the investigation a "witch hunt" and denied any collusion with Russia.
Read the full account of the interview from the New York Times.