President Trump said he believes a string of “corruption” in the 2016 election leads all the way up to former President Barack Obama.
After admitting to not being privy to the latest findings in Attorney General William Barr and U.S. Attorney John Durham’s inquiry into the origins of Russia investigation, Trump said, “I just know that our country is looking into the corruption of the 2016 election.”
“There was a lot of corruption. Maybe it goes right up to President Obama. I happen to think it does,” Trump added.
The topic of the Justice Department’s review of the Russia investigation came up Wednesday during a joint press conference at the White House with Italian President Sergio Mattarella.
The question posed to Trump focused on Barr and Durham meeting with Italian officials in September as part of their investigative effort. A reporter asked Trump if he personally arranged for this to happen, what information was being sought, and whether Trump was satisfied with what they learned.
“I don’t know anything about the meeting, but certainly would be appropriate because the word is, and you read it in the same papers that I do, that they did go to other countries to try and hide what they were doing,” Trump said.
“Italy may have been one of them. So you really have to ask Attorney General Barr,” he added.
While in Rome, Barr and Durham reportedly listened to a secret recording of Joseph Mifsud, the mysterious professor at the center of the Trump-Russia saga. The quiet trip as impeachment furor swept Washington, D.C. was part of the DOJ’s “investigation of the investigators.” The Justice Department is looking into the origins of the counterintelligence investigation into Russian election interference in 2016 and any possible ties to the Trump campaign, which later became part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
Barr and Durham listened to a taped deposition of Mifsud at the U.S. Embassy in Rome as well as met with Italian security officials who provided them with other information that the Italian government had on Mifsud, according to the Daily Beast. Lawyers for former Trump national security adviser Mike Flynn claimed on Tuesday that the DOJ was now in possession of two Blackberry devices which had been used by Mifsud, though they did not provide any direct evidence for this claim.
DOJ spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said in September the DOJ was exploring the extent to which “a number of countries” played a role in the counterintelligence investigation directed against Trump’s campaign, noting this was being done separately from Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani’s efforts. The Justice Department has taken great efforts to try to distance itself from the actions taken by Giuliani, whose endeavors in Ukraine have become a central focus of the House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry and the Southern District of New York.
Soon after notes of a July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky were released, a call between Trump and Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison was also made public, revealing that Trump had encouraged Australia to cooperate with Barr in his Trump-Russia origins inquiry. Barr also discussed the investigation with the United Kingdom.
Barr and Durham are likely seeking information related to key Trump-Russia figures, including: British ex-spy Christopher Steele, whose unverified dossier was used to obtain secret surveillance warrants against Trump campaign associate Carter Page; Australian diplomat Alexander Downer, whose tip about former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos telling him the Russians had damaging information on Hillary Clinton led the FBI to officially open the Trump-Russia counterintelligence investigation, dubbed “Crossfire Hurricane”; and Mifsud, who allegedly told Papadopoulos that Russia had “dirt” on Clinton.
Trump and his allies have repeatedly named officials who played a role in the Russia investigation, including former FBI Director James Comey, former CIA Director John Brennan, and former FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, as being central to an alleged plot to undermine his campaign and presidency. There have long been allegations reverberating in right-wing circles that Obama himself took a leading role to damage Trump in favor of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and Trump has accused his predecessor of having “colluded or obstructed” with respect to Russia.
Democrats have dismissed the allegations of wrongdoing during the Trump-Russia investigation and are concerned that the DOJ review of the early stages of the Russia investigation may be an effort by Barr to discredit the work of Mueller. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, a staunch ally of Trump, argued that Barr is simply “doing his job.”
Reaching out to foreign governments for help in DOJ-run investigations is not uncommon — as part of his investigation, Mueller made 13 requests to foreign governments for evidence. Barr has privately said foreign intelligence agencies were likely involved in the Trump-Russia investigation, but has urged patience as he figures out exactly what happened.
