Barr reviewing origins of FBI's Russia investigation - CNN

The news will likely be viewed as a welcome development to the President, who, as recently as last week, told reporters more should be done to examine the origins of the Russia probe.

It will also likely raise concerns of politicization of the department's work at an already tense time, as Democrats worry that Barr is bending to the President's demands and have called on Barr to release an unredacted version of the special counsel's confidential report on the Russia investigation to Congress.

Barr's review was first reported by Bloomberg. The attorney general could address the issue further during questioning from lawmakers when he appears at Wednesday's Senate appropriations hearing.

Barr briefly alluded to his own review on Tuesday during his House appropriations hearing, telling lawmakers, "I am reviewing the conduct of the investigation and trying to get my arms around all the aspects of the counterintelligence investigation that was conducted during the summer of 2016."

The US official told CNN that Barr's review is separate from the ongoing work being conducted by the Justice Department's internal watchdog, Inspector General Michael Horowitz, but could not detail its precise scope nor explain how the work of US Attorney John Huber, who was also tasked with investigating surveillance matters, factors in at this stage.

In March 2018, amid calls by Republican lawmakers for a second special counsel to investigate how the Russia investigation began, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions revealed that Huber was looking into allegations that the FBI abused its powers in surveilling former Trump foreign policy aide Carter Page -- among other issues -- and Horowitz's office confirmed it would "review information that was known to the DOJ and the FBI at the time the applications were filed from or about an alleged FBI confidential source," and "review the DOJ's and FBI's relationship and communications with the alleged source as they relate to the (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court) applications."

Yet those efforts by Sessions to appease Trump and his allies on Capitol Hill appeared less than sufficient at the time.

Trump claimed on Twitter that the inspector general was the wrong person to probe possible FISA abuse, calling the move "disgraceful."

Barr said Tuesday he expected Horowitz's review will be completed in "May or June."

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https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/10/politics/barr-doj-investiation-fbi-russia/index.html

2019-04-10 14:19:00Z