PRESIDENT

urges probes into ‘other side’.

WASHINGTON — Undeterred by his attorney general’s pledge to keep politics out of the Justice Department, President Donald Trump again criticized Jeff Sessions on Friday, urging him to look into “corruption” on the “other side” and offering a list of partisan issues.

The fresh jabs launched at Sessions in early morning Twitter posts came after an evening of what appeared to be restraint. Trump wanted to rebut Sessions’ comments Thursday on Twitter, but his advisers stopped him, according to people briefed on the matter.

“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 in a pair of Twitter posts early Friday morning.

Later on, he said: “Open up the papers & documents without redaction? Come on Jeff, you can do it, the country is waiting!”

Keeping up the attacks on Sessions, Trump pointed to the 5-year prison sentence a federal judge handed down Thursday against former Air Force linguist and intelligence contractor Reality Winner for leaking a top-secret report on Russian hacking. “Gee, this is ‘small potatoes’ compared to what Hillary Clinton did! So unfair Jeff, Double Standard,” he wrote.

Sessions on Thursday issued a rare public statement defending his record as attorney general and pledging his commitment to justice after the president accused him of never taking control of the department.

“I took control of the Department of Justice the day I was sworn in,” Sessions said in a written statement.

The dispute between the president and the attorney general extended the public war that Trump has waged for more than a year on the Justice Department, training most of his fire on the special counsel investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.

Trump blames the Justice Department for the investigations that ensnared his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and longtime lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen. On Tuesday, Manafort was convicted and Cohen pleaded guilty to defrauding the federal government, among other charges.

The president privately vented to associates that he was furious with Sessions for failing to protect him in the way he believes Attorney General Eric Holder had protected President Barack Obama.

Asked whether he was considering firing Sessions, the president only reiterated his long-standing objection to Sessions’ recusal from the Russia investigation and his insistence that he would have chosen another person for attorney general had he known someone else would oversee the inquiry. “He took the job and then he said, ‘I’m going to recuse myself,’” Trump said of Sessions. “I said, ‘What kind of a man is this?’”

In an implicit but pointed reply, Sessions warned the president not to intrude on federal law enforcement. “While I am attorney general, the actions of the Department of Justice will not be improperly influenced by political considerations,” he said in a statement issued shortly before he met with Trump at the White House about a criminal justice overhaul.

Republicans on Capitol Hill on Thursday stood firm behind Sessions, who spent two decades as a senator, publicly cautioning Trump against firing him. They cited a packed calendar and a lack of confirmable replacements for a closely divided Senate where Democrats are watching vigilantly for any moves by the president that could undermine the Russia investigation.

But there were signs of softening, too, mainly from Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, the head of the Judiciary Committee. Grassley has warred with Sessions over one of Grassley’s top policy priorities, a comprehensive bipartisan criminal justice overhaul also championed by Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser. Grassley has said he believes that Sessions has led opposition within the administration to the legislative package.

During Thursday’s meeting at the White House, the president held off on backing the proposal at least until after November’s midterm elections, concluding that an endorsement now carried too much political risk, according to a senior White House official who was not authorized to disclose the private discussions and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

“The president remains committed to meaningful prison reform and will continue working with the Senate on their proposed additions to the bill,” Hogan Gidley, a White House spokesman, said in a statement.

Trump’s decision notably aligned him with Sessions, at least in the short term, and Grassley signaled his displeasure with the attorney general by suggesting he would be open to confirming a possible replacement for him. “I’ve got time for hearings this fall,” he told reporters. He had protected Sessions last year amid rumors of his firing by saying that the Senate would not make room for confirmation hearings for a new attorney general.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., also hedged his support for Sessions, noting that it was obvious Sessions had lost the president’s confidence and that he did not necessarily object to Trump replacing him under the right circumstances after the midterm elections. Graham had previously said that Trump would have “holy hell to pay” if he fired Sessions.

Trump, who tends to be less confrontational with perceived foes in private settings, was cordial with Sessions at their meeting on criminal justice overhaul. Neither man brought up their barbed exchange, according to two senior administration officials who attended the meeting and spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations.

Sessions followed the president’s lead in the meeting, the officials said. The two agreed on several points made by advisers on a prison overhaul. For example, if the legislation moves forward, both men agreed that they would want to increase the sentencing penalty for drug cases that involve fentanyl. In the past, both have recommended putting some drug dealers to death.

After the meeting, Kushner went to Capitol Hill to meet with Senate leaders to try to find a path forward for the legislation.