In his first interview since becoming attorney general, Bill Barr provided details into the latest investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia probe.
Speaking exclusively to Fox News’ Bill Hemmer, Barr said “The first step is to find out exactly what happened, and we’re trying to get our arms around that, getting all the relevant information from the various agencies and starting to talk to some of the people that have information.”
“I think there’s a misconception out there that we know a lot about what happened,” he continued.
“The fact of the matter is Bob Mueller did not look at the government’s activities,” Barr said. “He was looking at whether or not the Trump campaign had conspired with the Russians. But he was not going back and looking at the counterintelligence program. And we have a number of investigations underway that touch upon it — the main one being the office of inspector general that’s looking at the FISA warrants.”
Barr said “some very strange developments” took place between Election Day 2016 and Inauguration day–specifically the January 2016 briefing then-FBI Director James Comey gave then President-elect Trump about the salacious and unverified Russian dossier.
“That’s one of the things … we need to look at,” Barr said.
Earlier this week, Barr appointed Connecticut U.S. attorney John Durham to “examine the origins of the Russia investigation and determine if intelligence collection involving the Trump campaign was ‘lawful and appropriate.’”
Durham has previously investigated corruption in law enforcement and the destruction of CIA videos.
Barr also called Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s claims of him lying to Congress as “laughable” and slammed the “political circus” the Democrats created by voting to hold him in contempt of Congress.
“That’s part of the usual … political circus that’s being played out. It doesn’t surprise me,” he said to Hemmer.
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