U.S. Attorney General William Barr (video screenshot)
The Russia investigation begun by the Barack Obama administration focused on claims now debunked by the Mueller report that the 2016 Trump campaign colluded with Russia.
At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday, Republican senators asked Attorney General William Barr if he is investigating whether or not it was Democrats who were colluding with Russia.
“How do we know the Steele dossier is not itself evidence of Russian disinformation?” asked Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.
He was referring to the anti-Trump, opposition-research document funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee. It was used by the Obama administration as evidence to obtain permission to spy on the Trump campaign.
The chairman of the committee, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said he hopes to deal with the Russian interference issue in a bipartisan manner.
“But when the Mueller report is put to bed and it soon will be, this committee is going to look long and hard on how this all started,” he said. “We’re going to look at the FISA warrant process. Did Russia provide Christopher Steele with information about Trump that turned out to be garbage, that was used to get a warrant on an American citizen? And if so, how did the system fail?”
Barr, who previously told Congress he believes the Obama administration spied on the Trump campaign, said he could not “state with confidence” that the Steele dossier was not a Russian disinformation effort.
“That is one of the areas we’ll deal with,” he said.
Barr was asked whether the Obama administration took the routine step of warning the Trump campaign that it was a target of Russian attempts to influence the election.
He confirmed that was not done.
“I cannot fathom why it did not happen,” he said. “If you’re concerned about interference in the election. ”
Said Cornyn, “We need to know what steps the Obama FBI, DOJ and intelligence community, what steps they took to undermine the political process and put their thumb on the scale … before and after the 2016 election.”
Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham ahead of Barr testimony: “When the Mueller report is put to bed and it soon will be, this committee is going to look long and hard on how this all started. We’re going to look at the FISA warrant process.” https://t.co/U0hFpvmTbO pic.twitter.com/8WSUsHpJXt
— ABC News (@ABC) May 1, 2019
A blogger for the Twitter news aggregator Twitchy wrote, “Graham’s pledge to help Barr (who said something similar during previous congressional testimony) get to the bottom of how the ‘collusion’ ball got rolling might make more than a few people nervous.”
Former Obama adviser Dan Pfeiffer immediately objected, writing on Twitter, “I’m getting the sense that Lindsey Graham is not trying to get to the truth about Trump obstructing justice.”
Said Twitchy: “We don’t doubt that any suggestions to scrutinize the actions of the Obama admin, Comey, Strzok, Page et al be won’t sit well with Democrats.”
One Twitter user said: “It’s obvious to any objective observer, President Obama weaponized our government against a citizen candidate then administrative agents loyal to Obama attempted a coup to remove a sitting president. If I were THAT president, I would demand prosecutions.”
Democrats pressed Barr on a letter he received from Mueller expressing concern that the attorney general’s summary of the special counsel’s findings did not capture the entire essence of the investigation. Barr explained his objective was to convey the conclusions.
And he said he discussed that issue with Mueller by telephone and Mueller confirmed that Barr’s statements were accurate. Mueller, he said, was concerned that media were mischaracterizing the report.
“I asked him if we was suggesting my March 24 letter was inaccurate, and he said ‘no,'” Barr said.
It was last month when Barr stunned senators when he said, “I think spying did occur.”
.@SenatorShaheen asks Barr about reports he’s launched an investigation into officials who investigated Trump
“I think spying on a political campaign is a big deal,” he says, echoing baseless right-win conspiracy theories. “I think spying did occur.”
Shaheen is left speechless pic.twitter.com/G1fcAF2Irh— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 10, 2019
He said an investigation into the previous administration’s actions is as important as keeping foreign influence out of elections.
“I think spying on a political campaign is a big deal, a big deal,” he said.
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