Barr’s ‘investigation of investigators’ sparks fears for efforts to thwart Russia
Trump’s faith in Barr was also underscored when he gave him oversight of the review, passing over the director of national intelligence, Dan Coats, who would normally oversee such an investigation, the former FBI general counsel Jim Baker said. Coats has previously bumped heads with Trump over several national security issues.
“It’s a slap in the face to Coats,” said Baker, who worked closely in the initial stages of the Russia investigation with Comey. “A legitimate question is: ‘Why is the AG doing this as opposed to Coats?’
“It’s clear that the president has confidence in Barr,” added Baker, who now leads the R Street Institute, a nonpartisan public policy group. Baker noted that Trump issued an unusual and controversial executive order that gives Barr broad authority to declassify intelligence documents and make them public as part of the review.
That’s wrong, said Baker, saying that the FBI launched its investigation to deal with a genuine national security threat from Russia, as detailed in the Mueller report.
“Mueller’s conclusions validated our initial investigation, which was focused on Russia,” Baker said, adding that Mueller’s detailed report about Russia’s multi-pronged interference in 2016, makes it impossible to “conclude anything but this was a legitimate investigation”.
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