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Trump Escalates Feud Against Jeff Sessions With New Sarcastic Tweets

President Trump goaded Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Friday, asking, if he's so committed to avoiding political interference, why doesn't he investigate Democrats and Trump's other enemies?
Evan Vucci
/
AP
President Trump goaded Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Friday, asking, if he's so committed to avoiding political interference, why doesn't he investigate Democrats and Trump's other enemies?

Updated at 12:35 p.m. ET

President Trump snapped back at Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Friday with a series of Twitter posts that sarcastically took up Sessions' theme about the importance of political independence at the Justice Department.

"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......" Trump wrote.

The president's posts included a litany of points he and supporters have raised as part of their narrative about the "bias" and abuse of power by federal law enforcement, which they say is the real basis of the Russia investigation.

Continued Trump: "....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!"

Trump's responses came a day after Sessions announced that he would not let the Justice Department be swayed by political influences in the conduct of its investigations and prosecutions.

"While I am attorney general, the actions of the Department of Justice will not be improperly influenced by political considerations," Sessions said on Thursday.

The Justice Department declined to comment on Trump's tweets on Friday.

Trump and Republicans have been attacking the FBI and Justice Department for months, and Trump's and Sessions' individual relationship has been strained. Trump feels betrayed by Sessions' decision to recuse himself from the Russia investigation and has said he regrets appointing him.

Sessions, meanwhile, has defended himself and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein amid intense political pressure involving some of the stories that Trump mentioned.

In the construction of Trump and allies, there is a parallel galaxy of abuse and wrongdoing by the FBI and Justice Department, or Democrats, or both, that Sessions and Rosenstein are ignoring at the same time special counsel Robert Mueller investigates the Russia case.

Sessions has made it known through friends who've spoken on TV and to reporters that he does not intend to resign. Until recently, he appeared to enjoy a bulwark of support from his former colleagues in the Senate.

On Thursday, however, cracks began to appear as two key members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which would confirm a replacement for Sessions, appeared to suggest their openness to considering someone else.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Philip Ewing is an election security editor with NPR's Washington Desk. He helps oversee coverage of election security, voting, disinformation, active measures and other issues. Ewing joined the Washington Desk from his previous role as NPR's national security editor, in which he helped direct coverage of the military, intelligence community, counterterrorism, veterans and more. He came to NPR in 2015 from Politico, where he was a Pentagon correspondent and defense editor. Previously, he served as managing editor of Military.com, and before that he covered the U.S. Navy for the Military Times newspapers.