WASHINGTON — Ignoring appeals from his attorney general to stop tweeting about the Justice Department, President Trump on Wednesday renewed his attacks on the agency, demanding “JUSTICE” for himself and all future presidents.
With a series of retweets, Mr. Trump appeared to embrace the suggestion that Attorney General William P. Barr “clean shop” at the department. And the president promoted the idea of naming a special counsel to investigate what Tom Fitton, the head of the conservative nonprofit Judicial Watch, described as a “seditious conspiracy” at the department and the F.B.I.
A day earlier, Mr. Barr was, according to some of his associates, considering a different sort of shop cleaning: If his boss did not stop meddling with Justice Department investigations, he was said to be considering his own future.
For more than a week, the president has been publicly open about his view of the case against his longtime friend and adviser Roger J. Stone Jr. And the notion that Mr. Barr might leave his post over Mr. Trump’s commentary did not appear to quiet the president.
Mr. Stone was convicted in November of seven felonies for obstructing a congressional investigation into whether the Trump campaign had ties to Russia. At the time, Mr. Trump said his friend’s conviction was evidence of a double standard in the justice system.
Last week, a day after prosecutors filed a routine recommendation for Mr. Stone’s sentencing, Mr. Trump called it “horrible and very unfair.” Hours after that, Mr. Barr intervened to lower the sentencing recommendation, drawing public praise from the president while spurring fears that the Justice Department was bowing to White House influence.
This led four prosecutors to quit the Stone case, drawing a lashing from Mr. Trump who said they “cut and run,” and were part of the special counsel team’s “investigation that was illegal.”
Amid outrage over the prosecutors’ departures, Mr. Barr took the extraordinary step of going on national television to send a message to the president: “It’s time to stop the tweeting about Department of Justice criminal cases.”
Mr. Trump has also questioned the decisions of the federal judge overseeing the Stone case. And on Tuesday, he spoke highly of Mr. Barr’s integrity while simultaneously undermining his authority. Mr. Trump said, “I’m actually, I guess, the chief law enforcement officer of the country.”
Mr. Stone’s sentencing is scheduled for Thursday.
Mr. Barr’s ability to protect the Justice Department from Mr. Trump’s influence was a concern of critics when Mr. Trump announced his nomination.
Since then, critics say, Mr. Barr has all but proven their fears. Mr. Barr oversaw an administrative-review-turned-criminal inquiry into the origins of the 2016 Russia investigation, an investigation Mr. Trump had been demanding for months. Mr. Barr reviewed and decided not to pursue a criminal referral about the president’s campaign finance violations regarding Ukraine, dealings that ultimately led to Mr. Trump’s impeachment last year. And Mr. Barr summarized the findings of the special counsel inquiry, led by Robert S. Mueller III, in a manner that was favorable to Mr. Trump — leaving out details about the instances in which Mr. Trump may have obstructed justice.
Mr. Trump acknowledged on Tuesday that his running commentary on the Stone case was making Mr. Barr’s job harder, but he gave no indication that he would back off.
Asked about pardoning Mr. Stone after the president granted clemency to several white-collar criminals on Tuesday — decisions he said were made based on advice from friends and business associates — Mr. Trump said, “I haven’t given it any thought.”
He added, “In the meantime, he’s going through a process. But I think he’s been treated very unfairly.”