President Trump’s questioned why “beleaguered” Attorney General Jeff Sessions isn’t investigating ties between Russia and the campaign of his former opponent, Hillary Clinton - continuing attacks on the head of the Justice Department.
“So why aren’t the Committees and investigators, and of course our beleaguered A.G., looking into Crooked Hillarys crimes & Russia relations?” Mr. Trump tweeted Monday morning.
The comment comes after Mr. Trump criticized Mr. Sessions in an interview last week with The New York Times for his decision to recuse himself from the DOJ’s probe of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
“Sessions should have never recused himself, and if he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me before he took the job, and I would have picked somebody else,” Mr. Trump told the newspaper.
Monday’s comments follow on the heels of what appears to be new line of attack against the attorney general for not going after Mr. Trump’s former Democratic opponent.
“So many people are asking why isn’t the A.G. or Special Council looking at the many Hillary Clinton or Comey crimes. 33,000 e-mails deleted?” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter on Saturday.
Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores declined to comment on the president’s tweets or to confirm the last time Mr. Sessions and Mr. Trump had spoken.
It’s unclear whether the president intends to fire the attorney general, who was an early and ardent supporter of Mr. Trump and the first U.S. senator to endorse his campaign.
Axios reported Monday that Mr. Trump has raised the possibility of considering former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani as a potential replacement to head the Justice Department.
On Thursday, Mr. Sessions responded to Mr. Trump’s initial public rebuke, saying he did not plan to step down and expected to continue to carry out the president’s directives as the country’s top law enforcement officer.
“I’m completely confident that we can continue to run the office in an effective way,” Mr. Sessions told reporters at the time. “We love this job. We love this department. And I plan to continue to do so as long as is appropriate.”
Mr. Sessions served as a Trump campaign surrogate throughout 2016, but some actions taken during the course of the campaign have emerged as potential liabilities.
Meetings Mr. Sessions had with the Russian ambassador during the course of the campaign have come under repeated scrutiny.
Mr. Sessions initially failed to disclose two meetings with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak when questioned by lawmakers during his confirmation hearings and also left them off of federal background check forms, saying he was advised not to include meetings that were conducted during the course of his work as a senator.
At the time, Mr. Sessions served on the Armed Services Committee and said he met foreign officials dozens of times and did not include any of those meetings on disclosure forms because they were conducted in his capacity as a senator.
The attorney general has said none of his meetings with the Russian ambassador involved discussion of the Trump campaign. However the Washington Post reported last week that U.S. spy agencies intercepted conversations Mr. Kislyak had with his superiors in Moscow in which he said he discussed campaign-related matters with Mr. Sessions.
Officials told the Post that Mr. Kislyak could have exaggerated the nature of his interactions with Mr. Sessions or mischaracterized the conversations but noted that the Russian ambassador was known for accurately relaying details to his superiors about his conversations and interactions in Washington.
• Andrea Noble can be reached at anoble@washingtontimes.com.
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