US President Donald Trump mounts new attack on attorney general Jeff Sessions

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump blasted Attorney General Jeff Sessions via Twitter Wednesday, labelling the country's top law enforcement official "disgraceful" over his handling of White House allegations of illegal wiretapping.

It was the second critical tweet in a week against Sessions, who reportedly submitted his resignation at least once last year after Trump insulted him.

Trump on Wednesday questioned Sessions' commitment to Republican demands that he investigate the use of so-called FISA national security warrants in 2016, when Barack Obama was president, to wiretap members of Trump's election campaign team over their contacts with Russia.

On Tuesday, Sessions said he had ordered the inspector general of the Department of Justice to look into whether highly secretive FISA warrant process was abused. 

"Why is A.G. Jeff Sessions asking the Inspector General to investigate potentially massive FISA abuse," Trump asked in a tweet.

"Will take forever, has no prosecutorial power and already late with reports on Comey etc. Isn't the I.G. an Obama guy? Why not use Justice Department lawyers? DISGRACEFUL!" Trump said.

One week ago Trump took aim at the attorney general in another tweet referencing Justice Department investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election and whether Trump's campaign colluded with that.

"Question: If all of the Russian meddling took place during the Obama Administration, right up to January 20th, why aren't they the subject of the investigation?" he wrote.

"Why aren't Dem[ocrat] crimes under investigation? Ask Jeff Sessions!" Trump wrote.

The Justice Department declined to comment on Trump's tweets.

Sessions, a former Alabama senator who joined Trump's campaign for the presidency early on, has been a stalwart enforcer of keynote administration policies like cracking down on illegal immigration, violent gang crime and drugs, and installing conservative judges and prosecutors across the justice system.

But Trump has frequently targeted Sessions with his ire, particularly over independent special prosecutor Robert Mueller's investigation into possible Trump campaign collusion with Russia and Trump's possible obstruction of that investigation.

Because he was part of the campaign, Sessions recused himself early on from overseeing the probe, infuriating Trump.

According to former Trump chief of staff Reince Priebus, he had to convince Sessions at least once last year to rescind a decision to resign, and rescued him from being fired on two other occasions.

Priebus told Chris Whipple for his upcoming book "The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency," that Sessions submitted his resignation in May 2017 after Trump called him an "idiot" in the Oval Office following the Justice Department's appointment of Mueller to handle the Russia probe.

Priebus and Vice President Mike Pence convinced Sessions to stay, and then persuaded Trump to reject the resignation letter, according to an excerpt of the book published in vanity Fair.

Two months later, according to Priebus, Trump, frustrated over the Mueller probe, had to be talked out of firing Sessions, whom he had labelled "weak."