After dumping nearly
30 inches of rain on Hawaii's Big Island, slow-moving Hurricane Lane could deliver “catastrophic and life-threatening flash flooding and landslides” to the rest of the island chain.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump pressed Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Friday to investigate his perceived enemies, as the latest flareup in the long-running feud between the men bled into another day.
Responding to Sessions’ declaration that he would not be influenced by politics, Trump tweeted that Sessions must “look into all of the corruption on the ‘other side’ ” adding: “Come on Jeff, you can do it, the country is waiting!”
The president’s tweets marked the second day of a highly public smackdown by Trump of his attorney general — the latest in a dispute that has simmered since Sessions recused himself from overseeing the Russia investigation.
Earlier this week, Trump, after the legal downfall of two former advisers, accused Sessions of failing to take control of the Justice Department. Sessions punched back Thursday, saying that he and his department “will not be improperly influenced by political considerations.” Trump’s anger with Sessions boiled over in an interview with Fox News in which the president also expressed frustration with the plea agreement his onetime legal “fixer” Michael Cohen cut with prosecutors, implicating Trump in a crime that Cohen admitted. Trump said it might be better if “flipping” — cooperating with prosecutors in exchange for more favorable treatment— were illegal because people cooperating with the government “just make up lies” to get a break from prosecutors.
Some of the issues Trump raised with Sessions on Friday have either already been examined or are in the process of being investigated.
He cited two former FBI officials, Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, who were sharply criticized in a Justice Department inspector general report in June for trading derogatory text messages about Trump. Strzok was fired by the FBI this month. Page has resigned from the bureau.
The inspector general is also investigating potential abuses in the early stages of the FBI’s investigation into possible coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign. Trump and other Republicans have complained that the political opposition research used to support a wiretap application on a Trump associate was paid for by Democrats, something the inspector general is expected to look at.
Sessions has made clear to associates that he has no intention of leaving his job voluntarily despite Trump’s constant criticism.