On May 17, 2017, the Acting Attorney General for the Russia investigation appointed a Special Counsel. The President reacted by telling advisors that it was "the end of his presidency" and demanding that Sessions resign.
Sessions submitted his resignation, but President ultimately did not accept it. President told aides that the Special Counsel had conflicts of interest and suggested the Special Counsel therefore could not serve. President's advisors told him the asserted conflicts were meritless
In early summer 2017 the President called Sessions at home and again asked him to reverse his recusal from Russia investigation. Sessions did not reverse his recusal.
On June 19, 2017, the President met one-on-one in the Oval Office with his former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and dictated a message for Lewandowski to deliver to Sessions.
The message said that Sessions should publicly announce that the investigation was "very unfair" to the President, the President had done nothing wrong.”
One month later President asked about status of his message for Sessions. Lewandowski told President the message would be delivered soon. Hours after that meeting President publicly criticized Sessions, then issued a series of tweets making it clear Sessions's job was in jeopardy
Lewandowski did not want to deliver the President's message personally, so he asked senior White House official Rick Dearborn to deliver it to Sessions. Dearborn was uncomfortable with the task and did not follow through.
