Donald Trump has hit back at his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, after Sessions issued an unusual public rebuke to the US president. In the latest outbreak of hostility between the two, Trump, who is increasingly embattled after being accused of criminal behaviour as part of a guilty plea by his former lawyer Michael Cohen this week – tweeted that Sessions should investigate alleged “corruption” by his political enemies.

“Open up the papers & documents without redaction? Come on Jeff, you can do it, the country is waiting!” the president wrote. In a Fox News interview broadcast on Thursday, Trump said: “I put in an attorney general who never took control of the justice department.”

But Sessions issued a statement defending the integrity of his department. “I took control of the Department of Justice the day I was sworn in,” he said. “While I am attorney general, the actions of the Department of Justice will not be improperly influenced by political considerations.”(theguardian)…[+]