WASHINGTON -- Ignoring appeals from the attorney general to stop tweeting about the Justice Department, President Donald Trump renewed his public criticism of the agency Wednesday, demanding "JUSTICE" for himself and all future presidents.
With a series of retweets, Trump appeared to embrace a suggestion by Tom Fitton, the head of the conservative nonprofit Judicial Watch, that Attorney General William Barr "clean shop" at the department. And the president promoted the idea of naming a special counsel to investigate what Fitton described as a "seditious conspiracy" at the department and the FBI.
A day earlier, according to some of Barr's associates, Barr was considering resigning if his boss did not stop meddling with Justice Department investigations.
For more than a week, the president has been publicly open about his view of the case against his longtime friend and adviser Roger Stone.
Stone was convicted in November of seven felonies for obstructing a congressional investigation into whether the Trump campaign had ties to Russia. At the time, Trump said his friend's conviction was evidence of a double standard in the justice system.
Last week, a day after prosecutors filed a recommendation for Stone's sentencing, Trump called it "horrible and very unfair." Hours after that, Barr sought to lower the sentencing recommendation, drawing public praise from the president while spurring fears that the Justice Department was bowing to White House influence.
This led four prosecutors to quit the Stone case, prompting Trump to say they "cut and run," and were part of the special counsel team's "investigation that was illegal."
Trump also has questioned the decisions of the federal judge overseeing the Stone case.
Stone's sentencing is scheduled for today.
As anger simmered over the prosecutors' departures, Barr went on national television to send a message to the president: "It's time to stop the tweeting about Department of Justice criminal cases."
Trump has repeatedly ignored that advice, insisting that he has the "legal right" to intervene in criminal cases.
Trump has retweeted several Twitter posts from Fitton, who claimed that Trump was conspired against by the Justice Department and FBI that led to the investigation of possible coordination between Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and Russia.
"Barr should clean house at DOJ," Fitton said. In another tweet that Trump posted, Fitton said Trump "has a positive constitutional obligation to speak up about DOJ corruption."
Fitton's group has spent years suing the government seeking documents to support his accusation that the Justice Department is corrupt. He is a frequent commentator on Fox News, and the president has sometimes posted Fitton's views on Twitter.
In another tweet, Fitton bolstered Trump's expansive view of his power over the Justice Department. In a tweet sent hours after Trump told reporters that he is "the chief law enforcement officer of the country," Fitton cited instances in which several of Trump's predecessors had directed the Justice Department to take various actions.
His examples included President George H.W. Bush ordering the department to investigate police in the wake of the 1992 riots in Los Angeles after a jury acquitted four police officers who were charged with using excessive force in the arrest of Rodney King, who was beaten.
Trump also posted a suggestion by Fitton that the president pardon his former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty in December 2017 to lying to the FBI about his contacts with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak and is awaiting sentencing. The president has said he believes that Flynn, too, has been treated unfairly.
Trump's retweets Wednesday also included several from conservative congressional allies, including Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., who expressed hope that the Justice Department would soon hold responsible those officials who "weaponized the awesome powers at their disposal in order to target the Trump campaign" during the Russia investigation.
Trump added: "There must be JUSTICE. This can never happen to a President, or our Country, again!"
The president also highlighted grievances about his impeachment by the House for seeking investigations from Ukraine that could benefit him politically at a time when U.S. military aid was being withheld to that country.
In another Zeldin tweet that Trump posted, the congressman said House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., should be "stripped of their gavels" and "the Dems should be removed from power in Nov for their corrupt, rigged, rushed impeachment, hijacking Congress to appease a radical activist liberal base."
BARR FEELS HEAT
Barr's ability to protect the Justice Department from Trump's influence was a concern of critics when Trump announced Barr's nomination.
Since then, critics say, Barr has all but proved their fears. Barr oversaw an administrative-review-turned-criminal inquiry into the origins of the 2016 Russia investigation, an investigation that Trump had been demanding for months.
Barr reviewed and decided not to pursue a criminal referral about the president's campaign-finance violations regarding Ukraine, dealings that ultimately led to Trump's impeachment last year. And Barr summarized the findings of the special counsel inquiry, led by Robert Mueller, in a manner that critics say was favorable to Trump.
Trump acknowledged Tuesday that his running commentary on the Stone case was making Barr's job harder, but he gave no indication that he would back off.
The White House made clear that Trump remained unrepentant about not adhering to Barr's request that he stop tweeting about the Justice Department.
"He absolutely respects the attorney general. And he appreciates his service. And they have a good relationship," deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley told reporters Wednesday. "As the president said, he also understands that sometimes what he says could impact the attorney general's ability to do his job, but the president still has a right to defend himself and he uses social media, as you guys well know, to get out his message directly to the American people."
Republicans on Capitol Hill played down the odds of a Barr departure. But in the past few days, some of the president's closest GOP allies have been letting Trump know that they think Barr is the right person to lead the Justice Department. Trump has not expressed much anger at Barr's candor, according to three White House officials and Republicans close to the West Wing.
Barr's spokeswoman said Tuesday night that the attorney general had "no plans to resign."
Former officials called on Barr to step down from his post after what they see as an erosion of the Justice Department's historical independence.
"The Justice Department has never been perfect, but it has worked very hard to be above suspicion for outright dishonesty and bias, and the invasion of politics into it," said Donald Ayer, who was a deputy attorney general under George H.W. Bush and was succeeded by Barr. "What's going on now is that's being torn down."
"I don't remember anything like this that has ever happened," Ayer said.
Barr, serving in his second stint as attorney general, has sought to paint himself as an independent leader who would not bow to political pressure.
But Democrats have repeatedly accused him of acting more like the president's personal attorney than the attorney general.
Barr's frustration with Trump, which he has communicated to senior White House aides, has grown in recent weeks. He told those close to him that he felt compelled to speak publicly after Trump criticized the sentencing of Stone.
After the Stone reversal, more than 1,100 former Justice Department prosecutors called on Barr to resign in a letter released Sunday, insisting that Barr's decision to intervene in Stone's case tarnished the department's reputation.
Some Democrats called for Barr to resign, and Senate Democratic leader Charles Schumer called on the Justice Department's inspector general to open an investigation into Barr's role in the sentencing reversal.
If Trump continues to tweet, and Barr continues to stay in his job, "I think he is in danger of getting into 'Boy Who Cried Wolf' territory," said Matthew Miller, a former Justice Department spokesman in President Barack Obama's administration.
"He's already said the president's commenting made his job impossible, and the president kept commenting, and then he apparently told people that he was considering resigning if the president didn't stop. So if the president doesn't stop now and he doesn't quit, he looks feckless and insincere."
Information for this article was contributed by Eileen Sullivan of The New York Times; by John Wagner, Matt Zapotosky and Devlin Barrett of The Washington Post; and by Jonathan Lemire, Michael Balsamo, Mary Clare Jalonick, Jill Colvin and Zeke Miller of The Associated Press.
A Section on 02/20/2020