US Attorney General William Barr says Russia probe amounted to ‘sabotage’ and was started without basis
- William Barr said the Justice Department has evidence there was ‘something far more troubling’ than just mistakes during the investigation
US Attorney General William Barr believes the Russia investigation that shadowed President Donald Trump for the first two years of his administration was started without any basis and amounted to an effort to “sabotage the presidency,” he said in an interview with Fox News Channel.
Barr offered no support for his assertion that the FBI lacked a basis for opening the investigation and made no mention of the fact that the bureau began its probe after a Trump campaign adviser purported to have early knowledge that Russia had dirt on Trump’s 2016 Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.
Barr, who has appointed a US attorney to lead an investigation into the origins of the Russia probe, said the Justice Department has evidence there was “something far more troubling” than just mistakes during the investigation that eventually morphed into special counsel Robert Mueller’s inquiry.
“I think the president has every right to be frustrated because I think what happened to him was one of the greatest travesties in American history,” Barr said in the interview with Fox News Channel’s Laura Ingraham that was broadcast Thursday night.
The attorney general said the FBI launched its counter-intelligence investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia “without any basis”.
