Barr: CIA ‘stayed in orbit’ for the launch of the FBI’s Russian probe

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The attorney general had suspicions that the CIA or foreign intelligence agencies were involved in tracking the Trump campaign ahead of the official start of the FBI investigation, the Journal reported. But he said he saw “no sign of improper CIA activity” or any foreign government activity that took place before the FBI began its investigation in July 2016.

The Justice Department inspector general found last year that there were major errors in the way the FBI conducted its investigation into Russian electoral interference, but that it had opened the investigation properly. The DOJ watchdog report also refuted President Donald Trump’s claims that the FBI was illegally spying on his campaign.

Barr, however, disputed the findings of the DOJ’s Inspector General and has continued to protest the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane probe, accusing the agency of using flimsy suspicions to launch a “penetrating investigation.”

The use of “confidential human sources and the FBI’s wiretapping to investigate people involved in a campaign was outrageous,” Barr told the Journal.

Barr had revealed on December 1 that he had appointed US attorney John Durham in Connecticut as special counsel to investigate whether US intelligence and law enforcement had broken the law in investigating Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
Barr confirmed to the Journal, as he should have done to the Associated Press earlier this month, that Durham is narrowly focused on “ the behavior of Crossfire Hurricane, the small group in the FBI most involved, ” along with “ the activities of certain private actors ”- without digression.
The attorney general also said Durham is looking at a January 2017 review of the US intelligence community that concluded that the Russian government had a “clear preference” for Trump.
Durham’s review of the origin of the Russia investigation began last year. Much to the chagrin of the president and Republicans, Durham has not released a public report and has filed just one charge against an underage FBI attorney since it began in mid-2019.
Barr said on Monday that he would step down next week and leave his post with about a month to go into Trump’s tenure.

In fact, Durham’s position as special counsel ensures that he can continue his work after Barr and Trump leave office, within Biden’s administration.

Former CIA Director John Brennan responded to Barr’s comments about the CIA on CNN Friday night, saying, “It is really brave of Bill Barr to say this after he has already announced that he is leaving” and said he thinks the Durham investigation is a ‘trolling exercise’.

“Obviously they couldn’t find anything related to any sort of wrongdoing,” Brennan told Wolf Blitzer in “The Situation Room,” wondering why he had been interviewed for hours.

“This is something I had a lot of confidence in, because the CIA and our other partners in this investigation have done everything possible, according to our authorities, to try to understand what the Russians were doing and then figure it out”, he said.

CNN’s Evan Perez and Katelyn Polantz contributed to this report.

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