Former acting Attorney General Sally Yates says President Trump's comments ripping 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's recusal from the Russia probe is a violation of the Justice Department's independence.

"POTUS attack on Russia recusal reveals yet again his violation of the essential independence of DOJ, a bedrock principle of our democracy," Yates tweeted Thursday.

POTUS attack on Russia recusal reveals yet again his violation of the essential independence of DOJ, a bedrock principle of our democracy. — Sally Yates (@SallyQYates) July 20, 2017

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Trump told The New York Times in an interview Wednesday that he would not have picked Sessions as his attorney general had he known Sessions would recuse himself from the investigations into Russian election interference, calling the recusal “very unfair" to himself.

"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," Trump said.

Sessions recused himself from the federal investigation into Russia's role in the 2016 presidential election and possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow in March, after it was revealed that he failed to disclose to the Senate two meetings with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak while he was a surrogate for Trump's campaign.

Trump abruptly fired Yates earlier this year for refusing to defend in court his original executive order restricting entry to the U.S. for refugees and people from certain Muslim-majority countries.

The former acting attorney general has slammed the Trump administration before for ignoring legal and political norms, saying its behavior should be "alarming to us as a country."