Barr Forms Team to Probe Possible FBI Abuses In Trump-Russia Investigation
Attorney General William Barr has formed a team to investigate potential abuses by FBI and Department of Justice officials involved in the the investigation into the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russia in the summer of 2016, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.
Congressional Republicans have for the past year called for a thorough accounting of the origins of the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign, which many of them believe began as a result of anti-Trump bias on the part of senior DOJ and FBI officials.
“I am reviewing the conduct of the investigation and trying to get my arms around all the aspects of the counterintelligence investigation that was conducted during the summer of 2016,” Barr told the House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday.
The investigation that will reportedly be carried out by Barr’s newly-formed team comes atop the existing DOJ Inspector General investigation into the origins of the counterintelligence probe, which Barr has said should be completed as early as May or June.
Senator Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) has emerged as perhaps the most vocal Republican calling for further investigation into whether FBI officials misled the FISA court by failing to disclose that the Steele dossier — an unverified opposition research file that was used as a pretext in the FISA application to surveil Carter Page — was initially funded by Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.
“What role did the dossier play? Was it the primary source of the information given to the court, was it supplemental, was its outcome determinative? I want to hear from Mr. [Bruce] Ohr why he warned people that you might not want to rely on Christopher Steele,” Graham, who sits on the Judiciary Committee, told reporters when asked what specific events his committee plans to investigate.
