(CNN) President Donald Trump asked Attorney General William Barr to hold a news conference clearing him of legal wrongdoing with regard to his phone call pressuring the Ukrainian President to investigate Democrats, a person familiar with the matter tells CNN.

Trump has raised the idea in conversations surrounding the ongoing impeachment inquiry over recent weeks, and has said he thought the idea could help project the message that he hadn't done anything wrong, the person familiar with the matter said.

The source couldn't say whether Barr and Trump had formally discussed the idea or whether Barr had ruled it out. But The Washington Post , which first reported the story, said the attorney general refused.

Citing people familiar with the matter, the paper reported that Trump's request came sometime around the White House's September 25 release of a transcript of the call . It was conveyed to White House officials and then the Justice Department. Trump has brought up Barr's refusal to aides over the past few weeks and how he wishes the attorney general had held the news conference, Trump advisers told the Post.

In a series of Twitter posts Thursday, Trump repeatedly denied the Post's report and attacked the media, at one point saying he never asked Barr to publicly defend his phone call. However, the Post's story doesn't say Trump asked Barr directly.

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