U.S. President Donald Trump is escalating his feud with Attorney General Jeff Sessions, calling on him to investigate a litany of grievances he has long held against those investigating his administration and Democrats.
Trump tweeted Friday that he wants Sessions to “look into all of the corruption on the ‘other side.'”
“Department of Justice will not be improperly influenced by political considerations.” Jeff, this is GREAT, what everyone wants, so look into all of the corruption on the “other side” including deleted Emails, Comey lies & leaks, Mueller conflicts, McCabe, Strzok, Page, Ohr……
—@realDonaldTrump
….FISA abuse, Christopher Steele & his phony and corrupt Dossier, the Clinton Foundation, illegal surveillance of Trump Campaign, Russian collusion by Dems – and so much more. Open up the papers & documents without redaction? Come on Jeff, you can do it, the country is waiting!
—@realDonaldTrump
It was the latest in days of verbal sparring between the two.
In an interview with Fox and Friends that aired Thursday, Trump accused Sessions of failing to take control of the Justice Department. Sessions punched back, saying his department will not be “improperly influenced by political considerations.”
Sessions has made it clear to associates that he has no intention of leaving his job voluntarily despite Trump’s constant criticism. But his tone in his statement on Thursday made clear he is tired of the president’s attacks.
Sessions, shown at a news conference on Wednesday in Cleveland, has said the Justice Department will not be ‘improperly influenced by political considerations.’ (Tony Dejak/Associated Press)
Trump’s anger with Sessions boiled over in the Fox interview, in which the president also expressed frustration with the plea agreement his onetime legal “fixer” Michael Cohen cut with prosecutors, including implicating Trump in a crime that Cohen admitted.
Trump said it might be better if “flipping” — co-operating with prosecutors in exchange for more favourable treatment — were illegal because people co-operating with the government “just make up lies” to get favourable treatment.
In the wide-ranging interview, Trump also defended himself against talk of impeachment, saying “the market would crash … everybody would be very poor.” He tried to distance himself from Cohen, claiming “I would see him sometimes.” And said anew that he hadn’t known in advance about Cohen’s hush money payments to silence women alleging sexual relationships with the celebrity businessman.
Trump’s latest shots against law enforcement came as he appeared increasingly vulnerable to long-running investigations after this week’s one-two punch of Cohen’s plea deal and the conviction of Trump’s former campaign chair Paul Manafort.