Trump election: Top law job ‘offered to Jeff Sessions’

Senator Jeff Sessions at Trump Towers

Donald Trump has asked Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions to be attorney general, US media report.

Senator Sessions, a former prosecutor elected to the Senate in 1996, has been one of Mr Trump’s closest allies throughout the campaign.

Meanwhile, retired Lt-Gen Michael Flynn is understood to have accepted the position of national security adviser.

Both men have courted controversy over their views. Mr Trump has yet to confirm the appointments himself.

But transition officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told news agencies Mr Sessions and Mr Flynn had been offered posts in the future administration.

Representative Mike Pompeo was offered the role of CIA director, the sources added.

However, Republican National Committee spokesman Sean Spicer, who is involved in the Trump presidential transition, would not confirm the reports on CNN.

“Until Donald Trump says it, it’s not official,” Mr Spicer said.

Retired three-star general Michael Flynn will be national security adviser, according to insiders

Mr Sessions and Gen Flynn have been close allies of Mr Trump since the early days of his campaign and share many of his views.

Mr Sessions opposes any path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants and was an enthusiastic backer of Mr Trump’s promise to build a wall on the border with Mexico.

Gen Flynn, a critic of the Obama administration since he was ousted as director of the Defence Intelligence Agency in 2014, agrees with Mr Trump on renegotiating the Iran nuclear deal, strengthening ties with Russia and intensifying the fight against Islamic extremists.

Mr Pompeo originally backed Marco Rubio for the nomination but supported Mr Trump after he won the nomination.