President Donald Trump again disputed a Washington Post report on his talks with Attorney General William Barr with a curious denial.
The newspaper reported that Trump had asked the attorney general to hold a news conference absolving him of wrongdoing in his dealings with Ukraine, but the Post reported that Barr refused.
Trump claimed the report was "fake news" based on nonexistent sources in a Wednesday night tweet, and again attacked the report Thursday morning with an eyebrow-raising claim.
"Bill Barr did not decline my request to talk about Ukraine," Trump said, appearing to confirm the request was made.
The president then insisted there was nothing wrong with his call with his Ukrainian counterpart, which a White House summary shows included repeated suggestions by Trump to investigate political rival Joe Biden.
"The story was a Fake Washington Post con job with an 'anonymous' source that doesn’t exist," Trump tweeted. "Just read the Transcript. The Justice Department already ruled that the call was good. We don’t have freedom of the press!"