Amid reports that Special Counsel Mueller is closing in, President Donald Trump has taunted Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Twitter, asking him to launch a probe of “the other side.” According to the Washington Times , the president launched into a Twitter tirade, demanding that he “release unredacted documents related to the Russia and Hillary Clinton investigations.”
Trump accused Sessions of being biased and questioned why he did not pardon Reality Winner, the NSA leaker who was recently sentenced to over five years in prison for submitting a confidential report regarding a 2016 Russian military cyber attack to various news outlets, but has done nothing regarding Hillary Clinton, as CNN reports.
“Ex-NSA contractor to spend 63 months in jail over ‘classified’ information. Gee, this is ‘small potatoes’ compared to what Hillary Clinton did! So unfair Jeff, Double Standard,” Trump tweeted.
In addition, Trump quoted from a statement Sessions made on Thursday, in which he said the “Department of Justice will not be improperly influenced by political considerations.” Trump taunted him, saying that this is “GREAT,” but that he should be looking “look into all of the corruption on the ‘other side’ including deleted Emails, Comey lies & leaks, Mueller conflicts, McCabe, Strzok, Page, Ohr…”
He added that the country was waiting for Sessions to take action.
Though Trump’s tweets come the day after he spoke out about the attorney general on Fox News, Trump’s ire for Sessions began after Sessions recused himself from the Mueller investigation. After listing off a number of complaints he had with the current justice department, and focusing specifically on Hillary Clinton and Peter Strzok, he added that he “put in an attorney general that never took control of the Justice Department.”
“When everybody sees what’s going on in the Justice Department, I always put ‘justice’ now with quotes,” Trump said. He claimed that Sessions was only selected for the role of attorney general out of loyalty, but he questioned what kind of man would take a job and then choose to recuse himself.
Sessions released a statement on Thursday, firing back at Trump for his statements on Fox News.
“I took control of the Department of Justice the day I was sworn in, which is why we have had unprecedented success at effectuating the President’s agenda,” he said. After adding that the DOJ won’t be influenced by politics, he said that demands the “highest standards,” and will take action if there is something amiss.
Sessions has not commented on the president’s tweets on Friday.
