Attorney General William Barr completely misrepresented the findings of a report from the Department of Justice’s inspector general by claiming the FBI acted in “bad faith” when it began an investigation into Donald Trump’s campaign — even though the report said the exact opposite.
“I think our nation was turned on its head for 3 years based on a bogus narrative that was largely fanned and hyped by a completely irresponsible press,” Barr said in an interview with NBC’s Pete Williams. “I think there were gross abuses … and inexplicable behavior that is intolerable in the FBI.”
The report, which looked into the origins of former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, said nothing of the sort. It found that the Mueller investigation was legitimate and not tainted by bias against Trump, as Trump and Republicans all claimed. In fact, the report determined that there were FBI agents who were biased against Hillary Clinton.
Yet Barr — like other conspiratorially minded Republicans who have totally disregarded the report’s findings to still claim the Russia investigation was unfair — is not accepting his own department’s findings.
Instead, he defended the Trump campaign for being in contact with Russians during the 2016 campaign — when Russia was running an illegal hacking operation to try and damage Clinton and boost Trump. He said that even if campaigns are getting illegal foreign money, they shouldn’t be investigated.
“In today’s world, presidential campaigns are frequently in contact with foreign persons,” Barr said. “And indeed in most campaigns there are signs of illegal foreign money coming in, and we don’t automatically assume that the campaigns are nefarious and traitors.”
Barr went on to again lie by saying the Trump campaign was “clearly spied upon,” even though the IG report concluded the opposite. And Barr added that he’s waiting for the results of another investigation he ordered, apparently hoping that it will back up the false claims he and Trump have peddled.
“I think we have to wait until the full investigation is done,” Barr said.
This is not the first time Barr has disregarded Justice Department findings to protect Trump. When Mueller’s report was completed, Barr lied about the findings to try and spin the findings before they were released.
Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.
