US President Donald Trump has again lashed out at his own attorney-general, Jeff Sessions, accusing him on Twitter of taking "a VERY weak position" on alleged "crimes" by Hillary Clinton and intelligence leakers.

The tweet was one in a series, and it continued the president's public attacks on Mr Sessions, whose job appears to be in jeopardy. Mr Sessions, a Republican former senator from Alabama, supported Mr Trump from the early days of his candidacy and became one of the real estate magnate's most trusted advisers.

But he fell out of favour with the president when he recused himself in March from investigations related to the 2016 presidential campaign, including probes of Russian interference in the electoral process, on grounds that he had been involved in the campaign.

A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment on Mr Trump's tweets Tuesday morning.

Mr Trump earlier in July assailed Mr Sessions in a New York Times interview for taking himself out of the Russia probe, saying that if he had known Mr Sessions would choose that course he would not have installed him at the Justice Department.

Asked whether Mr Trump wants Mr Sessions to leave, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders did not rule it out.

"Look, I know that he is frustrated and certainly disappointed in the attorney general for recusing himself, but ... I think that's a decision that if the president wants to make, he certainly will," she said on Fox & Friends on Tuesday morning. "That frustration certainly hasn't gone away, and I don't think it will."

Mr Trump also bashed acting FBI director Andrew McCabe, whom he described as "the person in charge of the Hillary investigation." Mr Trump said Mr McCabe "got $700,000" from Ms Clinton for his wife, Jill McCabe, who ran for the Virginia state Senate in 2015 and lost.

Mr Trump tweeted: "Problem is that the acting head of the FBI & the person in charge of the Hillary investigation, Andrew McCabe, got $700,000 from H for wife!"

In criticising Mr Sessions, whom he has called "beleaguered", Mr Trump wrote in a third tweet that Ukraine had tried to "sabotage" his presidential election campaign last year while "quietly working to boost Clinton". He asked, "So where is the investigation A.G."

Mr Trump tweeted: "Ukrainian efforts to sabotage Trump campaign – 'quietly working to boost Clinton.' So where is the investigation A.G."

Mr Trump seemed to be referring to reports that during the election, the Democratic National Committee hired a Ukrainian American Democratic operative, Alexandra Chalupa, to mobilise ethnic communities, including Ukrainian Americans. In 2014, Chalupa had investigated the role that Paul Manafort, who went on to become Trump's campaign chairman, played in the rise of former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych.

After leaving the campaign in July 2016, Ms Chalupa continued her research. Politico reported that Ms Chalupa said she sometimes shared her findings with officials at the DNC and Clinton's campaign, but campaign officials said they never received information. The White House has tried to compare this arrangement with the communication that the Trump campaign had with Russians during and after the campaign.

A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment on Mr Trump's tweets on Tuesday morning.

Conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt tweeted Tuesday morning that Anthony Scaramucci, the president's new communications director, told him, "You're probably right," regarding his reading that Trump's remarks mean he "wants AG Sessions to resign."

In an interview with Hewitt, Mr Scaramucci described Mr Trump as "obviously frustrated" but said he does not think the president wants to fire Mr Sessions and ventured that they "need to work this thing out."

"It's clear the president wants him gone," Hewitt shot back.

Mr Scaramucci replied: "If there's this level of tension in the relationship that's public, you're probably right. But I don't want to speak for the president on that." Later, Mr Scaramucci jokingly asked Hewitt if he was available for the job.

Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee and a frequent Trump target himself, wrote on Twitter that it is "fully transparent" that Mr Trump "wants to force Sessions to resign so he can appoint someone to curb Mueller probe." Mr Schiff added: "Only works if Senate lets it." He referred to special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, the former FBI director appointed in May to oversee investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election and related matters.

After coming under criticism from Mr Trump last week, Mr Sessions dismissed the notion that he would quit - with a caveat.

"We love this job," he told reporters. "We love this department, and I plan to continue to do so as long as that is appropriate."

The Washington Post, AP