In testimony on Wednesday morning before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee, Attorney General William Barr stated that he was creating a team within the Justice Department to investigate the origins of the Russia investigation. Even though the inspector general of the FBI is already looking into the basis of the investigation and expected to produce a report on how well the department followed guidelines in conducting that investigation, Barr is taking the extraordinary step of opening a parallel investigation. In giving his reasoning, Barr described the Russia investigation as “spying on a political campaign.” Asked to clarify this statement, Barr then said, “I think spying did occur.”
Barr followed this statement by talking about a group of “former officials” and administrators within the FBI, making it clear that he was intending to do exactly what Donald Trump has proposed all along: conduct an investigation in an effort to possibly prosecute, and certainly persecute, past and current members of the FBI and DOJ who were involved in investigating Trump.
As Barr was testifying, Trump was on the South Lawn of the White House calling the investigation “treason,” and listing the names of “bad guys” while stating he was looking forward to Barr’s investigation of the investigators. That list included former FBI Director James Comey, acting Director Andrew McCabe, attorney Lisa Page, and agent Peter Strzok.
Trump called the entire investigation “an attempted coup.” That language may seem outrageous, but it was no more outrageous than Barr’s statements before the Senate. Given an opportunity by Democratic Senator Brian Schatz to rephrase his statement that the FBI was “spying” on the Trump campaign, Barr was clearly confused as to why he would want to do so. He then rephrased the term as “unauthorized surveillance.”
With that, Barr made it clear he’s not actually conducting an investigation of FBI procedure. He’s acting as Donald Trump’s political commissar.
Barr was given multiple chances during the hearing to clarify his position, and at one point he did appear to back down a notch. Late in the hearing he stated, “I am not saying that improper surveillance occurred. I am saying that I am concerned about it and looking into it, that’s all.”
However, when questioned by Republican Chair Jerry Moran, Barr didn’t back away from the statement that he believed that “spying occurred.” From that statement, it seems clear that any idea that Barr might conclude that there was not some violation in investigating the Trump campaign has already been dismissed out of hand. Moran then proceeded to ask, with obvious enthusiasm, about the possible penalties and prosecutions of those who initiated the investigation.
Barr also answered questions from Lindsey Graham, with both Barr and Graham expressing sadness and confusion over the idea that the Trump campaign would not have been warned about Russian attempts to involve them in a conspiracy before an investigation was launched. That conversation included the bizarre concept that the FBI needed to warn someone before conducting surveillance, but ignored the fact that the Trump campaign was warned about Russian actions at least twice; that Trump was asked about Russian actions in public; and that Mitch McConnell blocked a formal statement on Russian attempts to work with Trump’s campaign.
In defending his actions in going after the FBI, Barr continually made references to instances in which the FBI had been used as a political tool to attack the powerless—without ever acknowledging that, in this case, those under investigation were exactly those with power over the FBI itself. But by halfway through the hearing it was again clear: William Barr is Trump’s instrument. Whether that means flipping the position of the DOJ to try to take health care from millions, or ripping into the FBI for doing its job, Barr does whatever Trump wants. Eagerly.