WASHINGTON — Attorney General William Barr said Monday that he did not expect an investigation into the origins of the FBI’s Russia investigation to lead to criminal probes of either President Donald Trump’s Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, or former President Barack Obama.
Trump has stated without evidence that he believes Obama committed unspecified crimes as president, repeatedly tweeting, “OBAMAGATE!” The claims have become a rallying cry among Trump supporters. Democrats view it as a desperate attempt to shift the focus from the president’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak and nation’s soaring unemployment.
Barr, speaking Monday at an unrelated news conference and responding to a question about Trump’s allegations, insisted he would not be swayed by political pressure to investigate the president’s opponents.
Barr’s comments come as Democrats and some former law enforcement officials have accused Barr of politicizing decisions and doing Trump’s bidding as attorney general. That criticism was stepped up two weeks ago when the Justice Department moved to dismiss charges against Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who had pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.
“We live in a very divided country right now, and I think that it is critical that we have an election where the American people are allowed to make a decision, a choice, between President Trump and Vice President Biden based on a robust debate of policy issues,” Barr said. “And we cannot allow the process to be hijacked by efforts to drum up criminal investigations of either candidate.”
Barr repeated his belief that the investigation into whether the Trump campaign conspired with Russia was a miscarriage of justice. He has appointed John Durham, the U.S. Attorney from Connecticut, to investigate whether crimes were committed as intelligence and law enforcement officials examined Russian election interference.
Barr said Monday that he did not anticipate Durham’s investigation to ensnare Biden or Obama. He pointedly noted that he must approve any criminal investigation of a presidential candidate and that the Supreme Court held just this month that not all abuses of power are criminal in nature.
“Whatever their level of involvement, based on the information I have today, I don’t expect Mr. Durham’s work will lead to a criminal investigation of either man,” Barr said. “Our concern over potential criminality is focused on others.”
He added: This cannot be and will not be a tit-for-tat exercise. We are not going to lower the standards just to achieve a result.”
Demands by Trump allies for investigations into Biden and Obama escalated in the last week after the president’s top intelligence official declassified a list related to the Flynn investigation. The list showed that Biden and other senior officials had asked the National Security Agency to obtain the identity of an American whose interactions with the Russian ambassador had been discovered through surveillance of the diplomat. That American turned out to be Flynn.
Trump supporters have cast the requests, known as unmaskings, as evidence of criminal conduct. But umaskings are a common procedure, done when officials believe that the concealed identity is vital to understanding the intelligence report. Thousands of requests are made each year, and Trump’s administration has used the process more frequently than Obama’s did.
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