WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump called on Attorney General Jeff Sessions Wednesday to shut down special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election.
Sessions "should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further," Trump tweeted. "Bob Mueller is totally conflicted, and his 17 Angry Democrats that are doing his dirty work are a disgrace to USA!" Trump also called the probe a "terrible situation."
The demand comes at what looks to be a pivotal point in the probe: Mueller's team is prosecuting former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort on financial allegations, and some Trump aides believe that Mueller will submit a report soon on his findings as they relate to the president. The Manafort trial began Tuesday.
The Department of Justice had no immediate comment on Trump's tweets.
While critics of the president said his tweet amounts to an attempt to obstruct justice, Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani said his client was simply expressing his views of what he considers to be an unfair investigation.
"We have been saying for months that it is time to bring this inquiry to an end," Giuliani said. "The President has expressed the same opinion."
Trump's calls for an end to the Mueller probe come a day after Facebook announced that it had detected a covert campaign to influence the November midterms by targeting hot-button social issues. Though the fake pages and accounts used in the influence campaign were not definitively tied to Moscow, the company said the tactics were strikingly similar to Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
The Facebook revelations prompted fresh condemnations of Russian election interference from administration officials, including Vice President Mike Pence, and from Democratic and Republican lawmakers.
Democrats have long accused Trump of seeking to shut down Mueller's investigation, which is looking into Russia's attempts to sway the 2016 presidential election toward Trump. Mueller is also probing whether Trump or anyone on his campaign coordinated with Moscow and whether there were any attempts by the president to obstruct justice.
Trump has denounced the investigation as a politically motivated hoax and has lately stepped up his attacks on Mueller.
Democrats slammed Trump's tweet.
"This is an attempt to obstruct justice hiding in plain sight," tweeted Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee.
Ben Rhodes, former foreign policy adviser to President Barack Obama, tweeted: "This is what the Republican Party supports - a relentless attack on the rule of law by the President of the United States to enable the continued Russian invasion of our democracy."
Even if Sessions was willing to act on Trump's demands, it's unclear what steps he could take. The attorney general has recused himself from the Russia investigation because he played a role in Trump's presidential campaign. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who has also been attacked by Trump, is Mueller's supervisor, and has consistently defended the special counsel's work.
Bipartisan legislation to protect the special counsel passed the Senate Judiciary Committee in April with a 14-7 vote, but the bill has not been taken up by the full Senate.
Contributing: Nicole Gaudiano