Attorney General William Barr, in a stunning rebuke to his boss, said Thursday that President Donald Trump should stop tweeting about the Justice Department, complaining that the president's comments "make it impossible for me to do my job." The remarks in an ABC News interview followed days of sharp criticism of Barr, Trump and the DOJ by congressional Democrats over the department's decision to reverse a harsh sentencing recommendation for Trump's friend, Republican political consultant Roger Stone. ABC TWEET "I think it's time to stop the tweeting about Department of Justice criminal cases," Barr told ABC News' Pierre Thomas. "I will make those decisions based on what I think is the right thing to do, and I'm not going to be bullied or influenced by anybody ... whether it's Congress, a newspaper editorial board, or the president," Barr said. "I'm going to do what I think is right," Barr said. "I cannot do my job here at the department with a constant background commentary that undercuts me." Trump's tweets, "make it impossible for me to do my job and to assure the courts and the prosecutors in the department that we're doing our work with integrity," he said. White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham responded to Barr's comments with the following statement: "The President wasn't bothered by the comments at all and he has the right, just like any American citizen, to publicly offer his opinions. President Trump uses social media very effectively to fight for the American people against injustices in our country, including the fake news. The President has full faith and confidence in Attorney General Barr to do his job and uphold the law."

A White House official told NBC News that "the media is completely ignoring [the fact that] both Attorney General Barr and President Trump agree that the President is the victim of an egregious political injustice, and the Department of Justice is investigating these matters because it is the right thing to do." The four prosecutors who handled Stone's trial told a judge in a court filing that Stone should serve seven to nine years in prison, as called for under federal sentencing guidelines. Within hours of that Monday filing, Trump blasted the recommendation as a "disgrace." And hours after that, the Justice Department said it would file a new sentencing suggestion for Stone, calling for a markedly lower prison term. Trump TWEET All four prosecutors quit the case in apparent protest on Tuesday — and one resigned from the Justice Department altogether. Trump praised Barr on social media after the Justice Department pushed the prosecutors in Stone's case to weaken their proposal. TWEET In his ABC interview, Barr for the first time publicly detailed his account of the decision to reduce Stone's sentencing recommendation. Barr said that on Monday, Timothy Shea, his former counselor who recently became the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, "came by to briefly chat with me and say that the team very much wanted to recommend the seven- to nine-year [term] to the judge, but he thought that there was a way of satisfying everybody and providing more flexibility." "And there was a brief discussion of that. I was under the impression that what was going to happen was very much what I had suggested, which was deferring to the judge," Barr told ABC. "Monday night, when I first saw the news reports [about the sentencing proposal], I said, "Gee, the news is spinning this. This is not what we were going to do.'" "I was very surprised. And once I confirmed that that's actually what we filed, I said that night to my staff that we had to get ready 'cause we had to do something in the morning to amend that and clarify what our position was," the attorney general said. "I had made a decision that I thought was fair and reasonable in this particular case. And once the tweet [by Trump condemning the sentencing proposal] occurred, the question was, well, now what do I do? Do you go forward with what you think is the right decision? Or do you pull back because of the tweet?" "And that just sort of illustrates how disruptive these tweets can be," Barr said. Barr added that while "I have a problem with some of the tweets, I'm happy to say that in fact, the president has never asked me to do anything in a criminal case." Asked if he had ever spoken with Trump about the sentencing recommendations for Stone, Barr said, "Never." Barr also denied that anyone from the White House had called him to try to influence him about Stone: "No. I have not discussed the Roger Stone case at the White House."

US President Donald Trump (L) shakes hands with US Attorney General William Barr (R) during the Public Safety Officer Medal of Valor presentation ceremony at the White House in Washington, DC on May 22, 2019. Jim Watson | AFP | Getty Images