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Former Attorney General William Barr made remarks regarding special counsel John Durham’s ongoing probe into the origins of the ‘Russiagate’ investigation by the FBI during an interview with Fox News Digital this week.
Barr said he believes that Durham “will get to the bottom” of the origins of the Trump-Russia probe, describing the original Obama-era investigation and “collusion” narrative as a “manufactured scandal” that hampered then-President Donald Trump for most of his term.
In the interview to discuss his new memoir, “One Damn Thing After Another,” Barr noted that the Trump-Russia probe was, in part, what led him to come back into government service to take over the Justice Department. He also expressed confidence in Durham’s ability to finish his years-long probe.
“I think whether or not there are more indictments, I think Durham is going to get to the bottom of it as well as anyone can,” Barr said, adding that Durham will eventually release a “report that lays out the facts.”
“I do think that there will be, as far as humanly possible using the justice system, there is going to be a disclosure of the relevant facts,” he noted further, adding: “Whether that supports more criminal indictments, I have no idea.”
But, he noted further, “I certainly hope that people, if they did commit crimes, and we can prove it, that they’re going to be held accountable.
“And there is no doubt in my mind that is what they’re going to do if he feels he has the evidence,” Barr said of Durham and his investigative team.
Barr tapped Durham, then serving as U.S. attorney for Connecticut, to look into the origins of the Russiagate investigation in 2019. The initial probe and allegations of collusion led to the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller, who found no such evidence.
“I’ve never seen an adequate basis for launching a counterintelligence investigation against the Trump campaign,” Barr told Fox News, which added:
In October 2020, Barr appointed Durham as special counsel in order to ensure he would be able to continue his investigative work – regardless of the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.
Barr said he “intentionally” appointed Durham special counsel before the 2020 presidential election so that if Trump lost, “no one could say anything.”
“I think if Trump lost and I did it, it would have been more vulnerable, but if I did it regardless of the outcome of the election, I thought that was a better way of doing it.”
As for much of the mainstream media and many Democrats, Barr said he isn’t sure that they are “ever going to accept the fact that this was a false scandal and was used in a partisan way against Trump.”
“The facts, you know, there was evidence of the Clinton campaign developing this, and the dossier, and the allegations about Alfa Bank and stuff,” Barr said. “They are essentially part of a campaign plan— a Clinton campaign effort — and they really just buried all of that.”
The unverified anti-Trump dossier was authored by ex-British intelligence officer Christopher Steele, commissioned by opposition research firm Fusion GPS, and funded by the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign through law firm Perkins Coie.
The dossier served as the basis for Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants against former Trump campaign aide Carter Page.
“The bureau used FISA surveillance, which is spying,” Barr said, noting further that the FBI also employed “agents and informants and confidential sources to meet and surreptitiously tape conversations they were having with people involved in the campaign.”
“I mean, that’s what people watch on TV all the time — people who are wired up — that’s spying,” Barr said.
On Thursday, a federal court ruled against Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann, who petitioned to have Durham’s “Factual Background” regarding his charge of lying to the FBI stricken from the court record.
Last month, Sussmann’s legal team filed a motion demanding that the court remove portions of the Feb. 11 filing that included the “Factual Background” section by claiming that it would “taint” a jury, Fox News reported Thursday evening.
“I’m not going to strike anything from the record,” noted U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Christopher Cooper during a status hearing. “Whatever effect the filing has had has already passed.”
