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Barr Stands Firm: Trump Campaign 'Was Clearly Spied Upon' by FBI

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Attorney General William Barr is standing by his assessment that President Donald Trump’s campaign was spied on by the Obama administration during the 2016 election.

“It was clearly spied upon,” Barr told NBC News reporter Peter Williams in an interview that aired Tuesday, the day after the release of Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s report on the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane investigation into the Trump campaign.

“That’s what electronic surveillance is. I think wiring people up to go in and talk to people and make recordings of their conversations is spying. I think going through people’s emails, which they did as a result of the [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] warrant.”

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Williams asked Barr why the FBI should not have opened an investigation if it had any suspicion of wrongdoing by the Trump campaign, even if the evidence was not strong.

“From a civil liberties standpoint, the greatest danger to our free system is that the incumbent government use the apparatus of the state — principally the law enforcement agencies and the intelligence agencies — both to spy on political opponents, but also to use them in a way that could affect the outcome of the election,” Barr responded.

The attorney general explained that to his knowledge, it was the first time in U.S. history such action has been taken in a presidential campaign.

Barr noted that members of presidential campaign staff and other advisers are often in communication with individuals from other countries during the course of a race, so that mere fact is not enough to properly predicate an investigation.

Do you think the Obama administration spied on the Trump campaign for political purposes?

“We don’t automatically assume that the campaigns are nefarious and traitors and acting in league with foreign powers,” he said. “There has to be some basis before we use these very potent powers in our core First Amendment activity.”

In this instance, Barr found the justification used to spy on the Trump campaign to be “very flimsy.”

Barr pointed out former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators found no evidence of Trump campaign members colluding with Russia.

“There was and never has been any evidence of collusion and yet this campaign and the president’s administration has been dominated by this investigation into what turns out to be completely baseless,” he said.

Barr told Williams he has tasked U.S. Attorney John Durham with looking into not only how Crossfire Hurricane was launched, but why the investigation of Trump officials continued after the election, given the fact that no evidence of collusion was unearthed after months of probing.

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“What was the agenda after the election that kept them pressing ahead after their case collapsed?” Barr said he wants to know. “This is the president of the United States.”

During congressional testimony in April, Barr, who had recently been confirmed as attorney general, made headlines when he described the FBI’s conduct during the 2016 race as “spying.

At the time, Democrats, including Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, countered that the FBI was engaged in “authorized” surveillance.

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Randy DeSoto has written more than 2,000 articles for The Western Journal since he joined the company in 2015. He is a graduate of West Point and Regent University School of Law. He is the author of the book "We Hold These Truths" and screenwriter of the political documentary "I Want Your Money."
Randy DeSoto is the senior staff writer for The Western Journal. He wrote and was the assistant producer of the documentary film "I Want Your Money" about the perils of Big Government, comparing the presidencies of Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama. Randy is the author of the book "We Hold These Truths," which addresses how leaders have appealed to beliefs found in the Declaration of Independence at defining moments in our nation's history. He has been published in several political sites and newspapers.

Randy graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point with a BS in political science and Regent University School of Law with a juris doctorate.
Birthplace
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Nationality
American
Honors/Awards
Graduated dean's list from West Point
Education
United States Military Academy at West Point, Regent University School of Law
Books Written
We Hold These Truths
Professional Memberships
Virginia and Pennsylvania state bars
Location
Phoenix, Arizona
Languages Spoken
English
Topics of Expertise
Politics, Entertainment, Faith




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