US Attorney General Jeff Sessions lashed back Thursday at increasing pressure from President Donald Trump, declaring the Department of Justice would not bow to politics.
"While I am Attorney General, the actions of the Department of Justice will not be improperly influenced by political considerations. I demand the highest standards, and where they are not met, I take action," he said in a terse statement.
The words came after Justice Department prosecutors won convictions of two former top Trump aides, Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen, in high-profile cases that raised fresh questions over Trump's behavior before he was elected in November 2016.
In an interview with Fox News that aired early Thursday Trump condemned both cases and blasted Sessions for his oversight.
"I put in an attorney general that never took control of the Justice Department. Jeff Sessions never took control of the Justice Department and it's a sort of an incredible thing," Trump said.
Trump has increasingly attacked Sessions -- whom he handpicked as the nation's top law enforcement official -- as the investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller into collusion between the Trump campaign and Russians, and alleged obstruction by the president, closes in on the White House.
He has pressed Sessions to find a way to shut down the probe, even though the former Alabama senator recused himself early on from any role in the investigation.
Amid rising calls for impeachment, Trump's future was further darkened on Tuesday when Manafort, who was chairman of Trump's presidential campaign in 2016, was convicted by a jury of tax and bank fraud.
On the same day Cohen, Trump's former personal lawyer, pleaded guilty to on charges of tax evasion and campaign finance violations, stating that Trump himself directed illegal payments made just before the 2016 election to silence two women who alleged they had affairs with the then-Republican candidate.
In his statement Thursday, Session made no direct comment on those cases.
But, he said defiantly, "No nation has a more talented, more dedicated group of law enforcement investigators and prosecutors than the United States."
"I am proud to serve with them and proud of the work we have done in successfully advancing the rule of law."
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