William Barr is not planning to resign over Trump tweets, says Justice Department in response to reports

‘I do make his job harder,’ president admits

William Barr, Donald Trump’s attorney general, is not planning to resign over a string of tweets by his boss that undermined government lawyers, the Justice Department has insisted.

US media cited unnamed sources as saying Mr Barr was considering the move following days of angry pronouncements by the president.

Mr Trump has lashed out at the impending sentencing of his friend and former confidant Roger Stone after the lead juror in the case revealed she was politically opposed to him.

The president repeatedly quoted a Fox News contributor as saying Stone should face a retrial, and previously suggested he deserved a shorter sentence than the nine years sought by the Justice Department after the flamboyant political consultant was convicted of lying to congress and obstructing justice.

Senior officials then withdrew their sentencing recommendations, leading all four government prosecutors on the Stone case to step down. Mr Trump derided the quartet as “Mueller prosecutors” and called for all investigations related to Robert Mueller’s Russia probe to be discontinued.

Last week Mr Barr was moved to tell television interviewers that his job would become impossible if the “constant background commentary” continued and that it was “time to stop the tweeting”.

The Washington Post reported that Mr Barr “has his limits” and had considered quitting over Mr Trump’s interference.

Meanwhile, more than 1,000 former Justice Department officials have demanded that he resign following the Stone sentencing fiasco.

But the attorney general’s communications director, Kerri Kupec, tweeted early on Wednesday that Mr Barr had “no plans” to step down.

And on Tuesday Mr Trump insisted that he had full confidence in Mr Barr and said he had “great integrity”. However, he admitted: “I do make his job harder.”

The president added: “Social media for me has been very important because it gives me a voice.”

Additional reporting by Reuters