Barr: FBI may have acted in 'bad faith' on Russia probe
U.S. Attorney General William Barr said Tuesday that he is still not fully convinced that the FBI acted without bias when it opened its 20-16 investigation into possible links between President Donald Trump's campaign and Russia…
Barr made the comments in a NBC interview.. a day after the U.S. Justice Department's internal watchdog released its report saying, while it found numerous errors , it concluded that the investigation by the FBI was justified.
Still, Barr told NBC there was still a possibility that the FBI acted in "bad faith"
And later, while appearing t the Wall Street Journal CEO Council, said it was 'too soon' to determine whether political bias motivated what he called the 'baseless' investigation...
(SOUNDBITE) U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL WILLIAM BARR SAYING:
"It's a big deal to use the law enforcement and intelligence resources of the united states government to investigate a campaign of an opposing party…/… it's clear the dossier was a sham, they don't tell the court and they continue to get FISA warrants based on that dossier/"I don't know what the motivations were and I'm not saying they were improper motivations, but I think it's premature to say they weren't…
Barr suggested that a final judgement cannot be made until federal prosecutor John Durham - who Barr tapped to do a separate probe --- completed his OWN investigation…
Barr did not say when that would be, but said he expects it to reach an important 'watershed' in the late spring or early summer….
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…
Barr's view of the FBI report is running contrary to that of his FBI Director Christopher Wray who told A-B-C News that he didn't think the F-B-I unfairly targeted the Trump campaign…
That prompted a response from Trump on Twitter.. who wrote on Tuesday:
"I don't know what report current Director of the FBI Christopher Wray was reading, but it sure wasn't the one given to me. With that kind of attitude, he will never be able to fix the FBI, which is badly broken despite having some of the greatest men & women working there!
