President Trump raged at reporting about Attorney General William Barr telling Republicans not to expect more indictments or a report from U.S. Attorney John Durham before the 2020 election.
Apparently hearing this for the first time, Trump was told of the news reported by Axios during a Friday afternoon virtual “rally” with conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh.
“If that’s the case, I’m very disappointed. I think it’s a terrible thing, and I’ll say it to his face,” Trump said.
“That’s a disgrace. I think it’s a disgrace. It’s an embarrassment,” he added. “I had to beat off the phony Mueller report. I had to beat off all this stuff. I had to beat off impeachment. I had to beat off Congress.”
In what has been dubbed the “Obamagate” controversy, Trump’s supporters believe top officials in the Obama administration sought to sabotage Trump’s candidacy in 2016 and later his presidency, and many of them have called for indictments.
Durham was appointed by Barr a year and a half ago to investigate the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation and review the conduct of federal intelligence and law enforcement associated with the inquiry into ties between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia. The federal prosecutor’s investigation has produced one criminal case so far. Former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith pleaded guilty in August to a false statements charge for fraudulently altering a CIA email during the process of the bureau seeking a court’s permission to renew an order to wiretap a former Trump campaign adviser.
A report should have come out “two years ago,” Trump told Limbaugh.
A Justice Department representative declined to comment to the Washington Examiner about Trump’s interview with Limbaugh.
Former special counsel Robert Mueller oversaw the creation of a report that was released publicly in April 2019 that showed his team concluded Russia interfered in 2016 in a “sweeping and systematic fashion” but “did not establish” any criminal conspiracy between the Russians and the Trump campaign.
Democrats and some national security veterans have raised concerns about the public release of Durham’s findings or indictments during the run-up to the election and have warned of a possible politicized “October surprise.”
Barr has repeatedly said that former President Barack Obama and Democratic presidential nominee and former Vice President Joe Biden are not under criminal investigation by Durham, and he insisted last month that Durham’s inquiry would not affect the 2020 election.
A top prosecutor from Durham’s team, Nora Dannehy, abruptly resigned in mid-September, after which Democrats demanded the Justice Department’s independent watchdog to open an “emergency investigation” into whether Barr, Durham, and others are taking steps to influence the 2020 election improperly.
Another report this week, this one by the Associated Press, said that Trump is “increasingly at odds” with Barr over the status of Durham’s inquiry. This frustration has been evident in interviews and tweets from the president.
“Unless Bill Barr indicts these people for crimes, the greatest political crime in the history of our country, then we’re going to get little satisfaction unless I win,” Trump said on Fox Business on Thursday, adding, “Bill Barr’s going to go down either as the greatest attorney general in the history of the country, or he’s going to go down as a very sad, sad situation.”
“I mean, I’ll be honest with you. He’s got all the information he needs,” he said. “They want to get more, more, more — they keep getting more. I said, ‘You don’t need any more. You’ve got more stuff than anybody’s ever had.’ Now, you know, with Durham, I don’t know what happened to Durham, but we’re going to find out what happened to Durham, but he’s got so much stuff.”
The Associated Press report also said that Barr is “frustrated by Trump’s public pronouncements about the case” and has “privately expressed frustration over the president’s public pronouncements.”
Barr has publicly expressed frustration with Trump’s public pronouncements in the past, saying in February that Trump’s comments about the sentencing of Roger Stone, a longtime adviser and friend to Trump, made it “impossible for me to do my job.”
“I think it’s time to stop the tweeting about Department of Justice criminal cases,” Barr said in February. “I’m not going to be bullied or influenced by anybody … whether it’s Congress, a newspaper editorial board, or the president. … I’m gonna do what I think is right. … I cannot do my job here at the department with a constant background commentary that undercuts me.”
