Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett said Attorney General William Barr “tipped his hand” in relation to the Justice Department review of the Russia investigation.
After Fox News host Sean Hannity asked how there have not been any indictments yet, Jarrett said Barr’s interview last week provided insight into what charges U.S. Attorney John Durham could bring against current or former federal law enforcement and intelligence officials in his criminal investigation.
“[Barr] said this is more than mistakes and sloppiness. This was sabotage against the president,” Jarrett said on Monday.
“I don’t think he would have said that unless he was briefed about the evidence gathered by John Durham, so potentially, you’re looking at abuse of power, deprivation of rights under color of law, fraud, perjury, and false statements,” he added.
During an interview with Fox News host Laura Ingraham, Barr argued that President Trump had “every right” to be upset with the FBI counterintelligence investigation, which was later wrapped into Robert Mueller’s special counsel investigation.
Claiming that “what happened to [Trump] was one of the greatest travesties in American history,” Barr said, “Without any basis, they started this investigation of his campaign, and even more concerning, actually, is what happened after the campaign, a whole pattern of events while he was president to sabotage the presidency … or at least have the effect of sabotaging the presidency.”
“My own view is that the evidence shows that we’re not dealing with just mistakes or sloppiness,” the attorney general said. “There is something far more troubling here, and we’re going to get to the bottom of it. And if people broke the law, and we can establish that with the evidence, they will be prosecuted.”
Barr broke with DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz, who said in a report released late last year that his own investigation found the FBI properly opened its counterintelligence investigation, known as Crossfire Hurricane, into potential ties between the Kremlin and Trump campaign in the summer of 2016.
Dubbed a “witch hunt” by Trump and his allies, Mueller’s team did not find a criminal conspiracy between the Trump team and Russia but did lay out possible instances of obstruction of justice that were seized on by Democrats last spring. Democrats have also criticized what is now Durham’s criminal investigation as a politically motivated scheme to undermine the work of Mueller and attack Trump’s perceived enemies.
Sources in a Wall Street Journal report earlier this month said Durham is increasingly focused on former CIA Director John Brennan and drove to Washington to make sure the investigation stayed on track during the coronavirus outbreak.
