Critics of President Donald Trump say he uses his Twitter feed in âmob-like waysâ to deliver orders to those who work in the Executive Branch.
However, Attorney General William Barr says he is not paying attention to Trumpâs comments on Twitter.
âI donât pay any attention. I donât even know what he tweets,â Barr said in an interview with The New York Times published on Monday.
That portion of the interview took place days before the Justice Department filed a motion in court to drop its prosecution of former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.
Barr had previously said Trumpâs tweets about the Justice Department and make it âimpossible to do my job,â as IJR reported.
When asked about Trumpâs tweets about Flynn and if those were the sort of tweets that make his job hard, Barr responded, âI havenât seen any of his tweets about Flynn, so Iâm not sure what heâs saying.â
Barr was shown a tweet from late-April where Trump said, â doesnât want to speak about their persecution of General Michael Flynn why they got the story so wrong. They, along with others, should pay a big price for what they have purposely done to this man his family. They wonât even cover the big breaking news about this scam!â
Barr responded, âTake it for what you will.â
âThe thing that I reacted to with Stone, was him saying what the department should do,â Barr said as he explained the kind of tweets that make it âimpossibleâ to do his job.
In February, Trump appeared to call for the Justice Department to intervene in the prosecution of former Trump campaign aide Roger Stone.
The department later revoked the original sentencing recommendation, which led to allegations that Barr had taken cues from Trumpâs tweet to help a political ally of the president.
However, Barr defended the Justice Departmentâs decision and said that he was already considering recommending a shorter sentence before Trumpâs tweet.
Still, in a February interview with ABC News, Barr rebuked Trump for tweeting about the Justice Department, âI think itâs time to stop the tweeting about Department of Justice criminal cases.â
He continued, âPublic statements and tweets made about the department, about our people in the department, our men and women here, about cases pending in the department, and about judges before whom we have cases, make it impossible for me to do my job.â
