Attorney General Jeff Sessions told Time in an interview published Thursday that he stands by his decision to recuse himself from the Russia probe, despite the public scorn he has received from President Trump.

“I think I did the right thing,” Sessions said. “I don’t think the attorney general can ask everybody else in the department to follow the rules if the attorney general doesn’t follow them.”

Sessions said in his interview that his job as attorney general is to tell the executive what he can and can’t do legally, yet Trump has repeatedly criticized Sessions for failing to “protect” him when it comes to the investigation into Russian influence in the 2016 presidential elections.

“Congress passes a law, judges follow the law, and nobody’s above the law, including the judges, and including the president,” Sessions said, adding that his loyalty was to a principle rather than any one man.

Sessions recused himself from testifying before Congress on a broad range of topics last year, including the investigation into Russian interference in the U.S. election.

Trump has said he would have nominated someone else as attorney general if he had known Sessions was going to recuse himself from the investigation.