Trump had promoted a tweet that he is “the victim” of a Justice Department conspiracy, urging Barr to “clean house” and argued that Trump “can also appoint a special counsel directly” to investigate the purported conspiracy against him.
Barr should clean house at DOJ...@realDonalldTrump,was the victim of a seditious conspiracy out of DOJ/FBI, etc. President Trump can also appoint a special counsel directly. pic.twitter.com/SH4Eu4JCbP
— Tom Fitton (@TomFitton) February 19, 2020
The tweet was posted by Tom Fitton, president of the conservative advocacy group Judicial Watch, and included a link to a more than eight-minute-long appearance by Fitton on Fox News. The president followed with another post from Fitton, claiming Judicial Watch is “doing the heavy lifting exposing the worst corruption scandal in American history.”
.@JudicialWatch doing the heavy lifting exposing the worst corruption scandal in American history. https://t.co/qLZ3dWyXxx
— Tom Fitton (@TomFitton) February 19, 2020
The retweets came after reports that Barr has told people close to the president that he might resign if Trump does not stop making public comments about cases lodged by federal prosecutors who report to the attorney general. A Justice Department spokeswoman, however, said later Tuesday that Barr has no plans to resign.
White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said Wednesday that Trump “has a right to make his opinion known.”
Barr came under fire for overruling a recommendation to send former Trump campaign aide Roger Stone to prison for up to nine years, prompting the four prosecutors assigned to the case to withdraw. Stone was convicted for lying to Congress about his communications with WikiLeaks and witness tampering. Trump had slammed the initial recommendation and then after the reduction of the proposed sentence, applauded Barr’s intervention, sparking Democrats’ demands for a probe of the attorney general’s actions.
