Former Attorney General William Barr is defending the probe into the origins of the U.S. government investigation into then-candidate Donald Trump, saying a critical report of the probe ignored “basic facts.”
Barr, who was appointed by Trump after the latter became president, tasked U.S. Attorney John Durham to look into the government’s Trump investigation, which involved surveilling Trump campaign figures and examining the unverified dossier compiled on behalf of Trump rival Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
Durham was later made special counsel by Barr.
“The idea that there was a thin basis for doing it doesn’t hold water,” Barr told the Los Angeles Times this week, following a New York Times report that claimed there was “a strained justification” for opening the Durham-led probe….