JEFF SESSIONS/JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/MICHAEL COHEN/PAUL MANAFORT/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Trump blamed the Justice Department on Thursday [8-23-18] for the investigations surrounding him, criticized the deal struck with his former lawyer Michael D. Cohen and lashed out at Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who countered with a rare public rebuke of the president. Mr. Trump also praised Paul Manafort, his former campaign manager who was convicted of financial fraud this week, for refusing to cooperate with the Justice Department and said that plea agreements, an essential tool for prosecutors, should maybe be outlawed…In an implicit but pointed reply, Mr. Sessions warned the president not to intrude on federal law enforcement. ‘While I am attorney general, the actions of the Department of Justice will not be improperly influenced by political considerations,’ he said in a statement issued shortly before he met with Mr. Trump at the White House about criminal justice overhaul. The exchange escalated the public war that Mr. Trump has waged for more than a year on the Justice Department, training most of his fire on the special counsel investigation. Mr. Sessions’s response, his most forceful public pushback yet on Mr. Trump, showed the treacherous political terrain he is navigating: appointed by a president who has made apparent that he views law enforcement as loyal protectors but overseeing a Justice Department that views independence from political pressure as essential to the rule of law.”
–Katie Benner, Nicholas Fandos and Katie Rogers, “Trump Denounces Justice Dept. as Investigations Swirl Around Him,” The New York Times online, August 23, 2018