US President Donald Trump has again taken aim at US Attorney General Jeff Sessions, mocking him a day after Mr Sessions took the rare step of fighting back against criticism from the president.
In a burst of early morning tweets, Mr Trump quoted from a statement Mr Sessions issued yesterday in what was seen as a veiled jab at Mr Trump, who has made the Department of Justice head his punching bag for recusing himself from the Russia election meddling probe.
"'Department of Justice will not be improperly influenced by political considerations.' Jeff, this is GREAT, what everyone wants, so look into all of the corruption on the 'other side,'" Mr Trump wrote.
He then listed what he said were examples of such foul play: Hillary Clinton emails that were deleted, what he called lies by former FBI director James Comey, and what Mr Trump described as conflicts of interest affecting Robert Mueller - the special counsel who is investigating Mr Trump's ties to Russia.
In a later tweet, Mr Trump listed more things he said Mr Sessions should investigate including a dossier said to include salacious details about Mr Trump as well as what the Republican leader said was illegal surveillance of his campaign while Barack Obama was president.
"Come on Jeff, you can do it, the country is waiting!" Mr Trump wrote.
Yesterday, Mr Trump warned that the US economy would collapse if he was impeached.
The president and his allies are trying to head off mounting talk of impeachment after he was implicated as a co-conspirator in two campaign finance violations by his former lawyer Michael Cohen.
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"I will tell you what, if I ever got impeached, I think the market would crash, I think everybody would be very poor," the president warned in an interview yesterday on Fox and Friends.
"I don’t know how you can impeach somebody who has done a great job."
He also renewed his attacks on Mr Sessions in an apparent attempt to have him end investigations that could endanger his presidency.
A president can be removed from office by Congress for "treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors".
Mr Trump has repeatedly berated Mr Sessions for recusing himself from the federal probe into Russian election meddling, which has expanded into questions of collusion and obstruction of justice as well as the financial dealings of Trump associates.
"I put in an attorney general that never took control of the justice department," he complained to Fox News, fuelling rumours he may fire Mr Sessions and install someone more pliant.
But Mr Sessions quickly hit back, saying he would not be swayed in a remarkable public broadside.
"While I am attorney general, the actions of the Department of Justice will not be improperly influenced by political considerations," he said.
Mr Trump also criticised social media companies for silencing "millions of people" in what he called an act of censorship.
He did not mention any of the companies by name.
On Tuesday, Facebook, Twitter and Google removed hundreds of accounts tied to an alleged Iranian propaganda operation, while Facebook took down a second campaign it said was linked to Russia.
"Social Media Giants are silencing millions of people. Can't do this even if it means we must continue to hear Fake News like CNN, whose ratings have suffered gravely. People have to figure out what is real, and what is not, without censorship!" Mr Trump said.
