Barr thinks FBI may have acted in bad faith linking Trump campaign's to Russia

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Attorney General William Barr said on Tuesday he is still not fully convinced that the FBI acted without bias when it opened its 2016 investigation into possible links between President Donald Trump’s campaign and Russia.

U.S. Attorney General William Barr smiles while speaking during the Wall Street Journal CEO Council, in Washington, U.S., December 10, 2019. REUTERS/Al Drago
In his first interview since a report by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz faulting the FBI for missteps in how it sought to put a former Trump campaign adviser under surveillance, Barr said he still has doubts about the FBI’s motives to pursue what he called a “baseless” investigation.

The internal watchdog's report here on Monday also concluded that the FBI had opened a legal, authorized probe, and it found no evidence of political bias.

Barr, in an interview with NBC News, however, cast doubt on the findings.

He said Horowitz used a standard that was “deferential” to the FBI when he investigated the claims of bias, and suggested that a final judgment cannot be made until federal prosecutor John Durham has completed his own separate investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation.

“I think our nation was turned on its head for three years based on a completely bogus narrative that was largely fanned and hyped by a completely irresponsible press,” Barr said.

“I think that leaves open the possibility that there was bad faith.”

Barr also said he was disturbed by the FBI’s reliance on a dossier penned by former British spy Christopher Steele in order to obtain a wiretap to monitor the campaign adviser Carter Page, saying the dossier was “complete rubbish” and a “complete sham.”

Barr has come under withering criticism from Democrats, who have accused him of acting more like Trump’s personal attorney and not like the Attorney General of the United States.

Earlier this year, Barr tapped Durham, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut, to look into the origins of the investigation into Trump’s campaign.

Durham’s probe is broader than Horowitz’s mandate because it involves talking to multiple U.S. intelligence agencies, such as the CIA, and foreign powers.

Durham, unlike Horowitz, also has the power to subpoena non-government witnesses and talk to people who are not Justice Department employees.

Barr told NBC that while he is not sure when Durham will complete his investigation, he expects it to reach an important “watershed” in the late spring or early summer.

© 2019 Reuters. All Rights Reserved.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-u...-idUSKBN1YE2BC

[Micawber]

Barr is a money whore with no principles. He will go to jail. Next?

[cancel2 2022]

Barr is a money whore with no principles. He will go to jail. Next?

I truly think you're losing your marbles over this, maybe you need a holiday?

[jimmymccready]

Wray is not intimidated by Trump or Barr.

They better tip toe carefully.

[Mr.Badguy]

Barr upset about the IG report? Ya don't say!

[cancel2 2022]

Barr upset about the IG report? Ya don't say!

The Durham report is timed to explode right in the middle of the campaigning in Summer next year, so we'll see what happens then!!

[canceled.2021.2]

Wray is not intimidated by Trump or Barr.

They better tip toe carefully.

Wray works for them. He can be fired

[jimmymccready]

The Durham report is timed to explode right in the middle of the campaigning in Summer next year, so we'll see what happens then!!

Durham is now investigating Barr and Trump.

[cancel2 2022]

Durham is now investigating Barr and Trump.

Lol, you're a fantasist.

[signalmankenneth]

[anatta]

FBI may have acted in 'bad faith' in Russia probe: Barr NBC interview today
https://www.justplainpolitics.com/sh...nterview-today

[anatta]

[QUOTE=anatta;3388666]Attorney General William Barr on Tuesday discarded a key finding of the 435-page report released by the Justice Department's watchdog, saying in an interview that the FBI may have acted in "bad faith" when they carried out an investigation into President Donald Trump's campaign in 2016.

"I think our nation was turned on its head for three years, I think, based on a completely bogus narrative that was largely fanned and hyped by an irresponsible press, and I think that there were gross abuses of FISA and inexplicable behavior that isn't tolerable in the FBI," Barr told NBC News.

Barr excoriated the FBI for making mistakes and omissions as they sought to surveil former Trump campaign aide Carter Page, in line with the findings of the Horowitz report.

But Barr took his criticism further, telling NBC that the FBI could have acted maliciously as they continued to seek out surveillance of the Trump campaign despite certain pieces of evidence that had been used to stand it up in court -- like elements of the intelligence gathered by Christopher Steele -- falling apart.


"They not only didn't tell the court that what they had been relying on was completely rubbish, they actually started putting in things to bolster the Steele report," Barr said. "That's hard to explain. The core statement in my opinion by the IG is that these irregularities, these misstatements, these omissions were not satisfactorily explained. I think that leaves open the possibility to infer bad faith."

"I think it's premature now to reach a judgment on that but I think that further work has to be done and that's what Durham is doing," he continued.

The inspector general can only compel DOJ employees to cooperate with his investigation, and Barr described his protocols as "very deferential."

"[Horowitz's] approach is to say, if I get an explanation from the people I'm investigating that is not unreasonable on its face, then I will accept it as long as there's not contradictory testimonial or documentary evidence...
And all he said is people gave me an explanation. And I didn't find anything to contradict it. So I don't have a basis for saying that there was improper motive. But he hasn't decided the issue of improper motive," Barr said.

Barr told NBC that he had confidence in Wray and believed he was "working hard to address the problems of the past."
Barr appeared to ding Wray's reaction to the report and side with Trump, adding that "we can't ignore the abuses of the past and appear to be justifying them or minimizing them."

Barr, as the head of the Justice Department, oversees the FBI.

Barr also reiterated his opinion that the FBI did not have enough evidence to open up a full investigation into the Trump campaign in 2016 -- which diverges from the conclusion reached by Horowitz.
According to the Horowitz report, the FBI investigation -- codenamed Crossfire Hurricane -- was opened exclusively on a tip to the FBI from an Australian diplomat that George Papadopoulos, then a foreign policy aide on the Trump campaign, had displayed knowledge of a possible plan by the Russians to release information damaging to Hillary Clinton.

In the interview, Barr dismissed Papadopoulos as a "28-year-old campaign volunteer" and suggested that the information he communicated could have been conflated with contemporaneous news reports about Russian hacking.

Papadopoulos has said that he actually received the information on the Russians possessing "dirt" on Clinton from a Maltese professor who is said to be connected to Russian intelligence.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/10/polit...obe/index.html

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Kartoon Kenny can't communicate clearly.

[Darth Omar]

"I think our nation was turned on its head for three years, I think, based on a completely bogus narrative that was largely fanned and hyped by an irresponsible press, and I think that there were gross abuses of FISA and inexplicable behavior that isn't tolerable in the FBI”. [Barr]

Not a conspiracy theory but a fact: A bogus narrative that Trump conspired with Putin was fanned and hyped by a [grossly] irresponsible media.

That is no longer debatable.

Barr’s opinion based on Horowitz’s report: there were abuses of the FISA court. Horowitz essentially calls them ‘errors’ since he was prevented from concluding bias. Either because of his own biases or the nature of his investigation.

[anatta]

they were spying on Trump before the Carter Page FISA. sending in dupes to get them on tape.
Then when they did they didn't include any of that denials as exculpatory evidence for the FISA