Tag: Bill Barr

Barr’s review of Russia investigation wins Trump’s favor. Those facing scrutiny suspect he’s chasing conspiracy theories.

Washington Post logoAttorney General William P. Barr has taken an interest in a mysterious European professor whose conversation with an adviser to President Trump’s 2016 campaign helped launch the FBI investigation into possible coordination with Russia — and who has since become the focal point of an unproven conservative theory that the entire inquiry was a setup, people familiar with the matter said.

Those involved in the FBI investigation said they are mystified by the attorney general’s activities and interest in the professor, Joseph Mifsud, and they suspect that Barr might be using Justice Department resources to validate conjecture that Mifsud was deployed against a Trump adviser by Western intelligence to manufacture a basis to investigate the campaign.

“It just seems like they’re doing everything they can to delegitimize the origins of that investigation,” said one person involved with the Russia probe, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the politically sensitive matter that is still being reviewed. “I just don’t think there’s any real basis to disparage it.”

View the complete October 6 article by Matt Zapotosky, Josh Dawsey, Shane Harris and Rosaline S. Helderman on The Washington Post website here.

Justice Department hasn’t interviewed key Russia probe witnesses

The DOJ’s investigation into the origins of the Russia probe seems to be focusing on the intelligence community’s links with foreign sources.

For months, President Donald Trump’s allies have been raising expectations for prosecutor John Durham’s investigation into the origins of the Russia probe, predicting that he will uncover a deep state plot to stage a “coup” against the president.

Durham “is looking at putting people in jail,” Republican Senator Lindsey Graham told Fox News host Sean Hannity in July. Republican Rep. Jim Jordan said Durham is about to unleash “a pile of evidence” that will “debunk” everything House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff has proclaimed for “the last two years.”

“Stuff is going to hit the fan” when Durham is done “investigating the investigators,” said Fox News personality Geraldo Rivera. “If indictments are warranted, U.S. Attorney John Durham will be bringing them,” wrote conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt.

But in the five months since Attorney General Bill Barr tapped Durham to investigate the origins of the Russia probe, and whether any inappropriate “spying” occurred on members of the Trump campaign, he has not requested interviews with any of the FBI or DOJ employees who were directly involved in, or knew about, the opening of the Russia investigation in 2016, according to people familiar with the matter.

View the complete October 5 article by Natasha Bertrand on the Politico website here.

Graham urges foreign leaders to assist Barr with investigation into 2016 election

“He is simply doing his job,” the Senate Judiciary chairman wrote to the Australian, Italian and British prime ministers.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham on Wednesday asked several foreign leaders to continue to assist Attorney General William Barr with his investigation into the 2016 election.

In a letter to the prime ministers of Australia, Italy and Britain, the South Carolina Republican requested their “continued cooperation with Attorney General Barr as the Department of Justice continues to investigate the origins and extent of foreign influence in the 2016 election.”

At President Donald Trump’s urging, Barr is examining how the FBI investigation into connections between Russia and the Trump campaign began.

View the complete October 2 article by Marianne Levine on the Politico website here.

Barr personally asked foreign officials to aid inquiry into CIA, FBI activities in 2016

Washington Post logoAttorney General William P. Barr has held private meetings overseas with foreign intelligence officials seeking their help in a Justice Department inquiry that President Trump hopes will discredit U.S. intelligence agencies’ examination of possible connections between Russia and members of the Trump campaign during the 2016 election, according to people familiar with the matter.

Barr’s personal involvement is likely to stoke further criticism from Democrats pursuing impeachment that he is helping the Trump administration use executive branch powers to augment investigations aimed primarily at the president’s adversaries.

But the high-level Justice Department focus on intelligence operatives’ conduct is likely to cheer Trump and other conservatives for whom “investigate the investigators” has become a rallying cry. Barr has voiced his own concerns, telling lawmakers in April that he believed “spying did occur” when it came to the U.S. investigation of the Trump campaign.

View the complete September 30 article by Devlin Barrett, Shane Harris and Matt Zapotosky on The Washington Post website here.

Barr personally asked foreign officials to aid inquiry into CIA, FBI activities in 2016

Washington Post logoAttorney General William P. Barr has held private meetings overseas with foreign intelligence officials seeking their help in a Justice Department inquiry that President Trump hopes will discredit U.S. intelligence agencies’ examination of possible connections between Russia and members of the Trump campaign during the 2016 election, according to people familiar with the matter.

Barr’s personal involvement is likely to stoke further criticism from Democrats pursuing impeachment that he is helping the Trump administration use executive branch powers to augment investigations aimed primarily at the president’s adversaries.

But the high-level Justice Department focus on intelligence operatives’ conduct is likely to cheer Trump and other conservatives for whom “investigate the investigators” has become a rallying cry. Barr has voiced his own concerns, telling lawmakers in April that he believed “spying did occur” when it came to the U.S. investigation of the Trump campaign.

View the complete September 30 article by Devlin Barrett, Shane Harris and Matt Zapotosky on The Washington Post website here.

Trump Pressed Australian Leader to Help Barr Investigate Mueller Inquiry’s Origins

New York Times logoThe discussion was another instance of the president using American diplomacy for potential personal gain.

WASHINGTON — President Trump pushed the Australian prime minister during a recent telephone call to help Attorney General William P. Barr gather information for a Justice Department inquiry that Mr. Trump hopes will discredit the Mueller investigation, according to two American officials with knowledge of the call.

The White House curbed access to a transcript of the call — which the president made at Mr. Barr’s request — to a small group of aides, one of the officials said. The restriction was unusual and similar to the handling of a July call with the Ukrainian president that is at the heart of House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry.

Like that call, Mr. Trump’s discussion with Prime Minister Scott Morrison of Australia shows the president using high-level diplomacy to advance his personal political interests.

View the complete September 30 article by Mark Mazzetti and Katie Benner on The New York Times website here.

From Bill Barr to Mike Pence: Here are all the people Trump could take down with him

AlterNet logoIt’s hard to recall anything that Donald Trump has touched which initially looked bad but eventually turned out to be nothing. With Trump, things are always worse than they appears. Throughout his recent career, that has usually ended up hurting those closest to Trump more than the president himself. If that pattern holds true in the growing Ukraine scandal, then several top members of Trump’s administration should be worried right now. This is likely to get real messy before it ends.

While attempting to defend himself from accusations that he pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden in exchange for U.S. military aid during at least one phone call — a reconstructed transcript, or “memo” of which was released on Wednesday — Trump gratuitously dragged his vice president into the middle of his mess.

“I think you should ask for VP Pence’s conversation because he had a couple of conversations also,” Trump told reporters during a news conference on the sidelines of the United Nations summit. “I could save you a lot of time. They were all perfect. Nothing was mentioned of any import other than congratulations.”

View the complete September 26 article by Sophia Tesfaye from Salon on the AlterNet website here.

Trump’s Ukraine Scandal Is Also Attorney General Bill Barr’s Scandal

“It’s as if the department’s only job is to protect Trump. They should change their name to the Department of Cover-up”

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Bill Barr got slammed by former prosecutors and Constitutional lawyers for playing a pivotal role in President Trump’s favor during the dying days of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.

He may have just done Trump another massive solid in the Ukraine whistleblower scandal, which now threatens to consume the White House.

Barr’s intimate involvement in the new scandal spilled out into public view on Wednesday, with vivid details that enraged Democratic members of Congress and left former prosecutors worrying openly about the Department of Justice’s increasingly battered reputation.

View the complete September 25 article by Greg Walters on the Vice website here.

Barr’s relationship with Trump called into question again by Ukraine call

Analysis: Trump’s call with Ukraine’s leader raises questions about whether he thinks the attorney general’s job includes advocating for him personally.

The Trump administration’s release of notes documenting President Donald Trump’s conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has raised questions about Trump’s relationship with Attorney General William Barr and whether he views Barr as someone whose job includes advocating for him on personal matters.

Repeatedly over the course of the call, Trump told Zelenskiy that his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and Barr will be contacting Ukrainian prosecutors on two investigations: one related to an email server tied to Trump’s former political rival, Hillary Clinton, and the other related to his potential future political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden.

“I would like to have the attorney general call you or your people and I would like you to get to the bottom of it,” Trump told Zelenskiy about an investigation he wanted into CrowdStrike, a California-based company that investigated the Russian hacking of emails belonging to the Democratic National Committee in 2016.

View the complete September 25 article by Julia Ainsley on the NBC News website here.

‘Ugly and deeply disturbing’: Trump’s DOJ appears primed to indict ex-FBI chief Andrew McCabe

AlterNet logoA top U.S. official in the has told former acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe that the Justice Department has rejected his argument to avoid charges for his conduct while working at the bureau, according to multiple reports on Thursday including NBC News.

This strongly suggests that the department will move forward with charges against McCabe, who has been a target of President Donald Trump’s wrath for his involvement in the Russia investigation. That probe, and concerns McCabe had about the president’s efforts to interfere in it, eventually led to the work and report of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who provided ample evidence that the president attempted to obstruct justice in the course of the investigation. Democrats are currently investigating these facts for potentially impeachable offenses.

But the conduct that appears to have gotten McCabe into trouble with the Justice Department is actually largely unrelated to the Russia case.

View the complete September 12 article by Cody Fenwick on the AlterNet website here.