Waching daily Nov 3 2017

You are watching top daily breaking news updates.

WASHINGTON — Frustrated with the Justice Department's reluctance to investigate his

political opponents, President Trump on Friday said he would like the agency to run itself,

but he and "a lot of people" are disappointed in the top federal law enforcement agency.

"I'm really not involved with the Justice Department, I'd like to let it run itself,"

Mr. Trump told reporters as he left the White House for an 11-day trip to Asia.

"But honestly, they should be looking at the Democrats."

Mr. Trump on Thursday acknowledged that presidents are not supposed to interfere with Justice

Department investigations, but he weighed in anyway with a series of Twitter posts early

Friday morning and said the department should investigate the Democrats' activity during

the 2016 campaign.

The American public, he said, "deserves it."

"At some point the Justice Department, and the F.B.I., must do what is right and proper,"

Mr. Trump said in a series of early morning Twitter posts that echoed some of the president's

comments late Thursday.

Mr. Trump's demands for new investigations into Democratic campaign activity come the

same week as the special counsel's first charges in the investigation into Russia's

interference in the 2016 election.

One of Mr. Trump's foreign policy advisers during the campaign pleaded guilty to lying

to the F.B.I.

It is unusual for a sitting president to badger his Justice Department to investigate a political

opponent, but Mr. Trump has consistently tried to deflect attention away from the Russia

investigation by suggesting Democrats should also be the subjects of federal inquiries.

"This is real collusion and dishonesty," Mr. Trump said in a Twitter post late Thursday.

A recent first-person book excerpt in Politico by Donna Brazile, the former interim chairwoman

of the Democratic National Committee, offered new ammunition for Mr. Trump.

Ms. Brazile wrote a stinging account of the Hillary Clinton campaign's controlling grip

of the party during the election.

Mr. Trump has previously called for the Justice Department to investigate his former opponent,

Mrs. Clinton, and her presidential campaign.

This week, he repeated those requests and called for the death penalty for the suspect

in the recent terrorist attack in New York, even as he acknowledged on Thursday that presidents

are not supposed to insert themselves into federal investigations.

"But you know the saddest thing, is that because I'm the president of the United

States I am not supposed to be involved with the Justice Department," Mr. Trump said

in a radio interview on the Larry O'Connor Show.

"I am not supposed to be involved with the F.B.I.

I'm not supposed to be doing the kind of things that I would love to be doing.

And I'm very frustrated by it."

Mr. Trump added, "I'll be honest, I'm very unhappy with it, that the Justice Department

isn't going — now maybe they are, but you know as president, and I think you understand

this, as a president you are not supposed to be involved in that process but hopefully

they are doing something and at some point maybe we are all going to have it out."

The president's comments about the death penalty could pose problems for prosecutors

and help defense lawyers for Sayfullo Saipov, the immigrant from Uzbekistan accused of carrying

out the attack in New York that killed eight people and injured others.

Defense attorneys could argue that Mr. Saipov could not get a fair trial when the president

of the United States publicly calls for the most extreme punishment before a judge has

heard any evidence.

Representative Jim Himes, a Democrat from Connecticut, warned the president in a Twitter

post on Friday morning that interfering with investigations is "dangerous."

That is all from the news room.

Thanks foe watching top daily breaking news.