Attorney General William Barr revealed on Tuesday a rough timeline for when the public can expect to see results from U.S. Attorney John Durham’s criminal investigation into the origins of the Russia probe and also took shots at the media for their role in the entire matter.
“I think a lot of people will hear what you’re saying here and say, well, that’s just Bill Barr defending Trump,” NBC News’ Pete Williams said. “Your concern about the FBI investigation is what, civil libertarian?”
“I think our nation was turned on its head for three years. I think based on a completely bogus narrative that was largely fanned and hyped by an irresponsible press and I think that there were gross abuses of FISA and inexplicable behavior that intolerable in the FBI,” Barr responded. “And the attorney general’s primary responsibility is to protect against the abuse of the law enforcement and intelligence apparatus and make sure that it doesn’t play an improper role in our political life. That’s my responsibility. And I’m going to carry it out.”
Barr noted that he was never asked by the White House to talk to anyone in Ukraine about investigating Joe Biden and said that he had not looked into much of the news surrounding Ukraine.
Williams then asked a dishonestly framed question: “What about the allegation that it was the Ukrainians who meddled in the election, not the Russians? Are you satisfied that’s not the case?”
“I’m confident the Russians attempted to interfere in the election. I don’t know about the Ukrainians. I haven’t even looked into it, quite frankly,” Barr responded.
Williams’ question is dishonest because it falsely suggests that top officials and politicians are suggesting that Ukraine meddled in the 2016 and not Russia, which is not true. Top figures have argued that Ukraine, although on a smaller scale, also meddled in the 2016 election along with Russia.
WATCH:
AG Bill Barr says his big concern over the FBI investigation is that "our nation was turned on its head for three years, I think based on a completely bogus narrative that was largely fanned and hyped by an irresponsible press."
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At a separate point in the interview, Barr noted that Durham was at least several months away from wrapping up his criminal investigation into the origins of the Russia probe.
“How long do you think — just do go back to Durham for a moment, how long do you think his investigation is going to take?” Williams asked. “Do you have any sense of how long he’s going to take? And what will we see when he’s finished?”
“You know, these things take time. And I know there’s a lot of impatience. People want results immediately but those are people who don’t understand our process. We have to be careful about the way they collect evidence,” Barr responded. “And we have to make sure that we have enough evidence to justify our actions. And we’re not going to cut corners in that respect. You know, there’s some people who think this thing is going to drop in a few weeks. That’s not the case. I see this, perhaps, reaching an important lettership in the late spring, early summer.”
“And obviously, he’s got a grand jury, if he brings charges we’ll find out about that, otherwise, but will he have a report?” Williams asked. “Will he tell you? How does that work?”
“I haven’t discussed that with him yet,” Barr responded.
“Would you like to see him have a report or make some sort of public presentation?” Williams asked.
Barr responded, “I’m going to largely leave that to him, but I’m also discussing that with him as he gets further along.”
WATCH:
AG Bill Barr highlights what we will see when the Durham investigation is complete. "We're not going to cut corners..." on the timeline, and says it will take, perhaps, in the late Spring or early Summer. Will there be a report? Dunno yet.
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