Jeff Sessions says firing James Comey 'was the right thing to do'

Attorney General Jeff Sessions has strongly defended President Donald Trump’s decision to fire former FBI Director James Comey, and added that the Department of Justice won’t hesitate to terminate any others found to have mishandled the Hillary Clinton email investigation.

“It was the right thing to do,” Sessions said in an interview with “Rising,” The Hill’s new TV show, which is set to air Thursday. “The facts were pretty clear on it. He made a big mistake and he testified only a few weeks before that termination that he would do it again [announce reopening the Clinton probe] if he had the opportunity. So we felt like there was a serious breach of discipline within the department if we allowed him to continue.”

Trump told NBC News last year that he had considered “this Russia thing” ― the federal investigation into whether Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia in the 2016 election ― in his decision to ax Comey. He contradicted himself this year, tweeting that the former FBI head was in fact not fired because of the Russia probe.

RELATED: Donald Trump and Jeff Sessions

Sessions’ comments come hours before a new DOJ inspector general report is set to be released on Thursday following an 18-month internal investigation of the FBI’s handling of the Clinton probe.

“If anyone else shows up in this report to have done something that requires termination we will do so,” Sessions said.

Sessions’ defense of Trump follows repeated disparaging remarks the president has directed toward him. Trump has raged at Sessions’ decision to recuse himself from the investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election and said last month he wished he had picked someone else for attorney general.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.