Sen. Lindsey Graham, a onetime critic of President Donald Trump who has grown close to him, could play a key role in replacing Attorney General Jeff Sessions. | Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images Congress Graham: New attorney general coming 'most likely early next year'

Sen. Lindsey Graham predicted Monday that Attorney General Jeff Sessions' resignation is imminent and that a new attorney general would be leading the Justice Department by early next year.

"Jeff probably will step down,” Graham (R-S.C.) told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, predicting that “we’ll have a new attorney general, most likely early next year."


Sessions has been publicly excoriated by President Donald Trump since he recused himself from a federal probe into allegations of collusion between Trump’s presidential campaign and the Russian government's efforts to interfere in the 2016 election. Trump has laid into his top law enforcement official both in public and in private, lashing out despite Sessions’ methodical implementation of policies that Trump campaigned on, from efforts to expand religious liberty to a crackdown on illegal immigration.

Graham, a onetime critic of the president's who has grown close to him, could play a key role in replacing Sessions. The South Carolina lawmaker is poised to become chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee if Republicans are able to maintain their majority in the chamber and if current Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) gives up his gavel to take over the chairmanship of the Senate Finance Committee.

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Graham, whose fiery, nationally televised defense of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh amid accusations of sexual misconduct drew widespread attention, said that Democrats’ “complete destruction” of Kavanaugh during his confirmation process would begin a new chapter for the Judiciary Committee.

“There was a confirmation process before Kavanaugh, and there’s the confirmation process after Kavanaugh” Graham said, arguing that “Supreme Court nominees need to be tested, but they don’t need to be destroyed. So I’m going to remember this.”

Graham said he would be happy to reach across the aisle to Democrats to reach a compromise on issues like immigration or prison reform, “but when it comes to judges, enough is enough,” he said.

As Judiciary chairman, the South Carolina Republican said the committee would shed its long-standing policy of allowing minority lawmakers to weigh in on federal circuit court nominees in their state, warning that the so-called blue-slip process “has been uneven in its application.” Democrats would still be allowed input, he said, but "they’re not going to have a veto on the circuit court."

"We’re going to be full throttle when it comes to judges," Graham vowed.