Barr suggested that he would focus on former senior leaders at the FBI and Justice Department.<\/p>\n “To the extent there was overreach, what we have to be concerned about is a few people at the top getting it into their heads that they know better than the American people,” said Barr.<\/p>\n Barr will also review whether the infamous Steele dossier – <\/strong>a collection of salacious and unverified claims against Donald Trump, assembled by a former British spy and paid for by the Clinton campaign – was fabricated by the Russian government to trick the FBI and other US agencies. (Will Barr investigate whether Steele made the whole thing up for his client, Fusion GPS?)<\/p>\n “We now know that he was being falsely accused,” Barr said of Trump. “We have to stop using the criminal justice process as a political weapon.”<\/p>\n Mueller\u2019s report didn\u2019t say there were false accusations against Trump. It said the evidence of cooperation between the campaign and Russia \u201cwas not sufficient to support criminal charges.\u201d Investigators were unable to get a complete picture of the activities of some relevant people, the special counsel found.<\/p>\n Although Barr\u2019s review has only begun, it\u2019s helping to fuel a narrative long embraced by Trump and some of his Republican supporters: that the Russia investigation was politically motivated and concocted from false allegations in order to spy on Trump\u2019s campaign and ultimately undermine his presidency<\/strong>. –Bloomberg<\/em><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n As Bloomberg<\/em> notes, Barr’s review could receive a boost by a Thursday New York Times<\/i> article acknowledging that the FBI sent a ‘honeypot’ spy to London in 2016 to pose as a research assistant and gather intelligence from Trump foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos <\/strong>over possible Trump campaign links to Russia.<\/p>\n The Trump re-election campaign immediately seized on the Times<\/em> report as evidence that improper spying did occur. “As President Trump has said, it is high time to investigate the investigators,” said Trump campaign manager, Brad Parscale in a statement.<\/p>\n During Barr’s Wednesday testimony, Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) told Barr “It appears to me that the Obama administration, Justice Department and FBI decided to place their bets on Hillary Clinton<\/strong> and focus their efforts” when it came to investigating the Trump campaign.<\/p>\n Depending on what Barr finds, his review of the Russia probe could give Trump ammunition to defend himself in continuing congressional inquiries<\/strong> — and in a potential impeachment for obstructing justice. Barr told senators that Trump\u2019s actions can\u2019t be seen as obstruction if he was exercising his constitutional authority as president to put an end to an illegitimate investigation.<\/p>\n Barr\u2019s efforts follow two years of work by a group of House Republicans who have been conducting dozens of interviews regarding the FBI\u2019s and Justice Department\u2019s conduct in the early stages of investigation of Trump and his campaign. –Bloomberg<\/em><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n On Thursday, Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) issued a criminal referral<\/a> for Nellie Ohr – a former Fusion GPS contractor who passed anti-Trump research to her husband, then the #4 official at the DOJ. <\/strong><\/p>\n On Thursday, Meadows said that Barr’s “willingness to investigate the origins of the Russia investigation is the first step in putting the questionable practices of the past behind us,” and that the AG’s “tenacity is sure to be rewarded.”<\/p>\n The FBI opened its counterintelligence investigation against the Trump campaign after a self-professed member of the Clinton Foundation, Joseph Mifsud, fed Papadopoulos the rumor that Russia had “dirt” on Clinton. That rumor would be coaxed out of the former Trump aide by another<\/em> Clinton-connected individual – Australian diplomat Alexander Downer, who would notify authorities of Papadopoulos’ admission, officially launching the investigation.<\/p>\n Barr says he wants to get to the bottom of it.<\/p>\n His review will examine the above chain of events that set the investigation into motion, and whether any US agencies were engaged in spying on or investigating the Trump campaign before the probe was officially launched<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Barr said he\u2019s working with FBI Director Christopher Wray \u201cto reconstruct exactly what went down.\u201d He said he has \u201cpeople in the department helping me review the activities over the summer of 2016.\u201d<\/p>\n Notably, Barr said his aides will be \u201cworking very closely\u201d with the Justice Department\u2019s inspector general, Michael Horowitz.<\/p>\n Horowitz is conducting his own investigation into the origins of the Russia investigation and whether there were abuses when the FBI obtained a secret warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in October 2016 to spy on another foreign policy adviser to the campaign, Carter Page. –Bloomberg<\/em><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/zh-prod-1cc738ca-7d3b-4a72-b792-20bd8d8fa069.storage.googleapis.com\/s3fs-public\/styles\/inline_image_desktop\/public\/inline-images\/barr%20steeple%20hands_0.jpg?itok=zbq3wmAo)
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