Both parties hit Trump over Justice criticism

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump encountered bipartisan criticism Tuesday for complaining that his own Justice Department’s indictments against two Republican congressmen were endangering the GOP’s midterm election prospects, with one Republican senator saying of Trump’s attack, “We can’t normalize that.”

Trump’s tweet was his latest effort to press the government’s chief law enforcement agency to react to his personal and political views. Investigators are not supposed to take into account the political affiliations of the people they investigate, and the department has a history of prosecuting lawmakers of both major political parties no matter which controls the White House.

“It was over and above what he’s done before,” Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., told reporters. “To say the Justice Department ought to punish his enemies and protect his friends goes beyond what any president in my memory has ever said, and that we can’t normalize that.”

Flake repeatedly has criticized Trump for his performance as president and is not seeking re-election this fall.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said in North Korea people might see a leader saying “who you prosecute.”

“No president of the United States, Republican or Democrat, has ever, ever crossed the line and told people, ‘Don’t prosecute Republicans. Only prosecute Democrats,’” Leahy said.