Foreign help sought over Russia probe
Barr asked for international aid in discrediting Mueller investigation
Attorney General William Barr has held private meetings overseas with foreign intelligence officials seeking their help in a Justice Department inquiry that President Donald Trump hopes will discredit US intelligence agencies’ examination of Russian interference in the 2016 election, according to people familiar with the matter.
Barr’s personal involvement may stoke further criticism from Democrats pursuing impeachment saying he is helping the Trump administration use executive branch powers to augment investigations aimed primarily at the president’s adversaries.
The direct involvement of the nation’s top law enforcement official shows the priority Barr places on the investigation being conducted by John Durham, the US attorney in Connecticut, who has been assigned the sensitive task of reviewing US intelligence work surrounding the 2016 election and its aftermath.
Barr has already made overtures to British intelligence officials, and last week the attorney general travelled to Italy, where he and Durham met senior Italian government officials and Barr asked the Italians to assist Durham, according to one person familiar with the matter. The Trump administration has made similar requests of Australia. A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment.
David Laufman, a former Justice Department official involved in the early stages of the Russia probe, said it was “unorthodox” for the attorney general personally to be flying around the world gathering evidence for a Justice Department investigation and especially so in Barr’s case.
“Even if one questions, as a threshold matter, the propriety of
conducting a re-investigation of the Justice Department’s own prior investigation of Russia’s interference, the appointment of John Durham — a seasoned, nonpartisan prosecutor — provided some reason to believe that
it would be handled in a professional, nonpartisan manner,” Laufman said. “But if the attorney general is essentially running this investigation, that entire premise is out the window.”