US Attorney-General says Mueller report due next week, cites ‘spying’ on 2016 Trump campaign

Updated

April 11, 2019 11:30:07

US Attorney-General William Barr has sparred with politicians over whether spying occurred on President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, and said a redacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian interference will be released soon.

Key points:

  • Mr Barr said he had questions about whether the Trump campaign had worked with Moscow to sway the election, but no specific evidence
  • He has refused to answer questions about how much of the Mueller report would be released or redacted
  • Mr Barr said he also wanted to look at whether there was “unauthorised surveillance” of Mr Trump’s campaign by US intelligence agencies

During questioning by senators on Wednesday, Mr Barr said “spying” on Mr Trump’s campaign was carried out by US intelligence agencies, but he later recharacterised his concerns as focused on “unauthorised surveillance”.

Initially using language echoing Mr Trump’s attempts to discredit Mr Mueller’s probe, Mr Barr pulled back under questioning by Democratic senator Brian Schatz, who said the use of the term “spying” was “unnecessarily inflammatory”.

“I want to make sure there was no unauthorised surveillance,” Mr Barr, a Trump appointee, said.

Redacted report to be released soon

Mr Barr said the Justice Department would release a redacted version of the Mueller report next week.

“I’m landing the plane right now,” he told the Senate Appropriations Committee hearing.

“I’ve been willing to discuss my letters and the process going forward, but the report is going to be out next week and I’m just not going to get details of the process until the plane’s on the ground.”

In March, Mr Barr wrote a letter to the committee summarising Mr Mueller’s findings, in which he said the investigation did not establish that members of Mr Trump’s election campaign had conspired with Russia.

He also said Mr Mueller had presented evidence “on both sides” about whether Mr Trump obstructed justice, but he did not draw a conclusion one way or the other.

The Mueller report was given to Mr Barr in March and has remained confidential while he reviews it and writes his own account communicating the findings to Congress and the American public.

Mr Barr also has to decide if the release of any sort of report is in the public interest.

Mr Barr discussed the report after a blistering assault by Mr Trump on the FBI investigation that was taken over by Mr Mueller, which the President called an “attempted coup”.

“It was started illegally,” Mr Trump told reporters at the White House, without citing any evidence.

“Everything about it was crooked. Every single thing about it. There were dirty cops. What they did was treason.”

‘I do have some questions’

Mr Barr told the committee that he would review all the intelligence activities directed at Mr Trump’s 2016 campaign.

Most of this has been done already, he said, adding he would pull it all together to see if there may be “remaining questions to be addressed”.

He was also asked whether he had any evidence of wrongdoing in the course of the federal probe into whether the Trump campaign had worked with Moscow to sway the election.

“I have no specific evidence that I would cite right now, I do have some questions about it,” Mr Barr replied.

ABC/Reuters

Topics:

government-and-politics,

donald-trump,

us-elections,

world-politics,

united-states

First posted

April 11, 2019 11:26:04

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