President Donald J. Trump and US Attorney General William Barr depart after delivering remarks on citizenship and the census in the Rose Garden at the White House on Thursday, July 11th, 2019 in Washington, DC. Jabin Botsford | The Washington Post | Getty Images

Your move, Mr. Attorney General. President Donald Trump on Wednesday retweeted claims that he is "the victim" of a Justice Department conspiracy, hours after reports that the department's chief official has threatened to quit if the president continues such criticism. A tweet Trump promoted to his nearly 73 million followers also said that Attorney General William "Barr should clean house" at the Justice Department — and argued that Trump "can also appoint a special counsel directly" to investigate the purported conspiracy against him. Tweet That tweet was first posted by Tom Fitton, president of the right-wing advocacy group Judicial Watch, and included a link to a more than eight-minute-long appearance by Fitton on Fox News. Trump soon afterward retweeted another post by Fitton, who said Judicial Watch is "doing the heavy lifting exposing the worst corruption scandal in American history."

That post referenced so-called astonishing emails that show former Justice Department official Rod Rosenstein "had many Obama/Clinton and media friends" supporting him when he "infamously appointed" former FBI Director Robert Mueller as special counsel. Tweet2 Trump's retweets Wednesday morning came after reports on Tuesday night that Barr — who is the head of the Justice Department — has told people close to the president that he might resign if Trump does not stop making public comments about cases lodged by federal prosecutors who report to the attorney general. A Justice Department spokeswoman said later Tuesday that Barr has no plans to resign. White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said Wednesday that Trump "has a right to make his opinion known." Trump has raged since early in his presidency about the investigation by the Justice Department and FBI into Russian interference in the 2016 election, which Trump won, and contacts by Trump campaign officials and others affiliated with the president with Russians during and before the campaign. Mueller took over that probe as special counsel in 2017. Trump is said to be furious that the Justice Department last week decided not to pursue criminal charges against Andrew McCabe, a former FBI deputy director, who had been under investigation for allegedly misleading investigators about leaks to journalists related to a probe of 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

Trump has repeatedly blamed McCabe, along with former FBI Director James Comey, for what the president has called a baseless investigation into Russian election meddling. On Tuesday, Trump told reporters that "I'm actually, I guess, the chief law enforcement officer of the country." "But I've chosen not to be involved," the president added. Barr last week, in an ABC News interview, said that Trump's tweets about federal criminal cases, including ones targeting people connected to the president, are making it "impossible for me to do my job."