A conservative advocacy group is urging President Trump to keep Attorney General Jeff Sessions Jefferson (Jeff) Beauregard SessionsGOP set to release controversial Biden report Trump's policies on refugees are as simple as ABCs Ocasio-Cortez, Velázquez call for convention to decide Puerto Rico status MORE on as the head of the Justice Department, saying his recusal from the Russia probe highlights “his commitment to restoring the rule of law.”

“Sessions' recusal on matters related to the 2016 campaign and the Russia investigation, while perhaps unnecessary, underscores his commitment to restoring the rule of law, which after the Obama administration's abuse of power was sorely needed and was one of Trump's key campaign promises,” Rick Manning, president of Americans for Limited Government, said in a statement.

“Any attempt to remove him from office at this stage would be a catastrophic mistake.”

The statement from the group, which pushes for limited powers at all levels of government, comes after Trump in an interview with The New York Times criticized Sessions for recusing himself from the Justice Department’s probe into Russia’s meddling in the presidential election last year.

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"Sessions should have never recused himself, and if he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me before he took the job and I would have picked somebody else," the president told the newspaper.

"How do you take a job and then recuse yourself? If he would have recused himself before the job, I would have said 'thanks, Jeff, but I'm not going to take you,' " Trump added. "It's extremely unfair — and that's a mild word — to the president."

Sessions in March recused himself from any investigations involving Russia's attempts to meddle in the United States presidential election, responding to increased bipartisan pressure for him to step aside due to his contacts with Russia's ambassador during the campaign.

Sessions on Thursday said he plans to stay on as Trump’s attorney general “as long as that is appropriate.”

"I have the honor of serving as attorney general. It's something that goes beyond any thought I would have ever had for myself," Sessions said at a press conference.

"We love this job, we love this department and I plan to continue to do so as long as that is appropriate.”

Manning said Sessions “is doing the difficult job of unwinding the politicized mess left behind by his Obama appointed predecessors” and that Trump should stand by his attorney general.

"If the President expects the American people to stand by him in the months ahead on the tough road to draining the swamp, he must stand by those who have stood with him,” he said.

“Not only is Jeff Sessions an outstanding Attorney General, as the first Senator to endorse Trump, he is one of the major reasons Trump did solidly in the south during the GOP primary. He should prefer that Sessions continue running 99 percent of the Justice Department while the Russia investigation wraps up than to turn over 100 percent of DOJ to the deep state for the months or year that it would take to confirm a new Attorney General through a Senate, that is in many respects, is still Democratic Party controlled."

Others have defended Sessions in the wake of Trump's criticism, including former White House ethics chief Walter Shaub, who said Wednesday that Sessions "did the right thing" by recusing himself.