FILE PHOTO: U.S. Attorney General William Barr arrives to announce the findings of the criminal investigation into the Dec. 6, 2019, shootings at the Pensacola Naval Air Station in Florida during a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington, U.S., January 13, 2020. REUTERS/Tom Brenner
(Reuters) – President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he has total confidence in U.S. Attorney General William Barr, who last week said in an interview that Trump’s tweeting habit had made it impossible for him to do his job.
“I do make his job harder…I do agree with that,” Trump told reporters before boarding Air Force One. “The Attorney General is a man with great integrity.”
Last week senior Justice Department officials withdrew an earlier sentencing recommendation for longtime Trump friend Roger Stone, who was found guilty in November of seven counts of lying to Congress, prompting upheaval within the department.
More than 1,000 former department officials have now called for Barr to resign.
Trump has used Twitter to attack the four prosecutors who had argued the case as well as the judge presiding over it.
Barr said in an ABC Interview last Thursday that he cannot do his job “with a constant background commentary” and that it is “time to stop the tweeting about Department of Justice criminal cases.”
While Trump offered words of support for Barr, he also spoke enthusiastically about tweeting. “Social media for me has been very important because it gives me a voice,” he said.
(Reporting by Steve Holland; Writing by Lisa Lambert; Editing by Howard Goller)
