The White House says President Trump was not giving Attorney General Jeff Sessions 'an order' when he mentioned the nation's top law enforcement officer by name and said he should 'stop' the Russia probe.

Faced by a new round of accusations the president was deliberately trying to obstruct special counsel Robert Mueller's probe, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said the president thinks it's time for the probe to 'come to an end' – but was not instructing Sessions to end it.

'The president's stating his opinion. It's not an order,' said Sanders, engaging in a delicate rhetorical dance over the Russia probe even as Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort is on trial for money laundering and tax charges.

'The president's stating his opinion. It's not an order,' said White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders when pressed about the President Twitter statement that his attorney general should end the Russia probe

She allowed that it was pretty clear when Trump was giving her an order as opposed to simply stating his views.

'But he's been I think crystal clear about how he feels about the investigation from the beginning,' she said.

Trump ratcheted up his pressure on Sessions, which has gone on for more than a year, when he said he 'should' put an end to Special Counsel Robert Mueller's long-running Russia probe

'Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now,' the president tweeted. 'Bob Mueller is totally conflicted, and his 17 Angry Democrats that are doing his dirty work are a disgrace to USA!'

President Trump said outright on Wednesday that his attorney general should put an end to the special counsel probe into Russia's 2016 election interference. But the White House said he was merely stating his 'opinion'. The president later prayed with inner city pastors in the Cabinet Room

Talks: Trump hosted a meeting with inner city pastors in the Cabinet Room shortly after his press secretary said it was his opinion not a formal demand to Jeff Sessions when he called on him to end the Robert Mueller probe

Trump ratcheted up his pressure on Sessions, which has gone on for more than a year, when he said he 'should' put an end to Special Counsel Robert Mueller's long-running Russia probe

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders was buffeted by questions about the Russia probe on Wednesday after Trump's latest comments attacking it

Sanders referenced 'corruption' in the FBI, and said the probe was based on the golden showers dossier – when in fact there were other strands of information at the start of the Russia probe, including warnings from overseas about the conduct of Trump foreign policy aides.

'The entire investigation is based off of a dirty discredited dossier that was paid for an opposing campaign and had a lot of corruption within the entity which was overseeing it, which was Peter Strzrok, James Comey, Andrew McCabe,' she said, reeling off high-level FBI officials who were there during the inception of the probe.

'The president has allowed this process to play out but he thinks it's time to come to an end,' said Sanders.

She repeated: 'It's not an order, it's the president's opinion and it's ridiculous that all of the corruption and dishonesty that's gone on with the launching of the witch hunt' – using the same terminology Trump uses to attack the Russia probe.

But amid calls from senior Republicans for Trump allow the independent probe to continue, Sanders would not state a specific date-certain when it must end – something prosecutors don't commit to in advance.

'We certainly think it should be completed. We'd like it to be completed sooner rather than later. It's gone on for an extensive amount of time. They've still come up with nothing in regards to the president. We'd like to see it come to a close,' she said.

'Look, the president is not obstructing he's fighting back. The president is stating his opinion. He's stating it clearly. And he's certainly expressing the frustration that he has with the level of corruption that we've seen from people like Jim Comey, Peter Strzok, Andrew McCabe,' she said.

'There's a reason that the president's angry and frankly most of America is angry as well and there's no reason he shouldn't be able to voice that opinion.'

Trump's mention of 17 prosecution lawyers is a reference to what he claims is an abundance of Democrats on Mueller's staff. The special counsel himself is a Republican.

Jeff Sessions recused himself in March 2017 from matters related to Russian election meddling because he was a Trump campaign advisor, and Trump has said he would not have picked him if he knew that would be the result

Sessions, who was a Trump campapign adviser and the first sitting senator to endorse his candidacy, recused himself from the Russia probe in March 2016 because he expected the campaign to be one focus of the investigation.

That gave the reins to his deputy Rod Rosenstein, who later appointed Mueller.

Trump has publicly criticized Sessions before, tweeting in June that the Mueller 'witch hunt' was only proceeding 'because Jeff Sessions didn't tell me he was going to recuse himself.'

'I would have quickly picked someone else. So much time and money wasted, so many lives ruined ... and Sessions knew better than most that there was No Collusion' with the Kremlin,' he added.

'Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further,' Trump tweeted Wednesday

Trump went all-in barely a half-hour later, calling the focus of Mueller's investigation a 'TOTAL HOAX'

The new tensions between the president and the nation's top law enforcer come as Mueller's team is prosecuting former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort on money laundering, tax evasion and bank fraud charges.

The allegations in that trial, which began Tuesday, are related to Manafort's financial dealings long before he was involved in the 2016 election cycle.

But firing Mueller would likely send a signal to Democrats that the White House is worried about potential blowback from a Manafort conviction just three months before the congressional midterm elections.

Still, Trump went all-in with a new intensity onWednesday, opening up on Mueller and his team with both barrels of his massive Twitter following.

'Russian Collusion with the Trump Campaign, one of the most successful in history, is a TOTAL HOAX,' he wrote.

'The Democrats paid for the phony and discredited Dossier which was, along with Comey, McCabe, Strzok and his lover, the lovely Lisa Page, used to begin the Witch Hunt. Disgraceful!'

Special Counsel Robert Mueller is conducting a lengthy probe that began as an inquiest into alleged but unproven allegations that the Trump campaign colluded with the Kremlin to beat Hillary Clinton in 2016

Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, a frequent Trump antagonist, said Wednesday that the president's tweets amounted to obstruction of justice

Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor, has been making the TV rounds and claiming that 'collusion is not a crime.' Trump doubled down on that assertion a day later.

The word 'collusion' isn't part of any federal law forming the basis of Mueller's investigation, but he has reportedly been looking at some of the president's tweets to supplement circumstantial evidence of obstruction of justice.

California Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff tweeted a similar suggestion after Trump's morning burst.

'The President of the United States just called on his Attorney General to put an end to an investigation in which the President, his family and campaign may be implicated,' wrote Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee.

'This is an attempt to obstruct justice hiding in plain sight. America must never accept it.'