Attorney General Jeff Sessions has vigorously pushed President Donald Trump's agenda at the Justice Department, and before that, he spent 20 years championing conservative causes in the Senate.

Yet as Sessions enters what may be the final stretch of his Cabinet tenure, those efforts are at risk of being eclipsed by his boss' frequent attacks that have made Sessions seem like a presidential punching bag.

They reflect Trump's outrage over the Russia investigation. And they're all the more striking given Sessions' alignment with Trump's priorities.

The Trump treatment has largely overshadowed Sessions' work against violent crime, illegal immigration and opioid addiction, and is clouding a record that otherwise would be more broadly cheered in conservative circles.

Sessions has mostly absorbed Trump's verbal blows quietly while pursuing a tough-on-crime agenda.