Barr asked foreign officials to aid inquiry
Where, how Russian meddling probe began in question
WASHINGTON — 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 U.S. 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.
But the high-level Justice Department focus on intelligence operatives’ conduct will likely cheer Trump and other conservatives for whom “investigate the investigators” has become a rallying cry.
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 U.S. attorney in Connecticut, who has been assigned the sensitive task of reviewing U.S. intelligence work surrounding the 2016 election and its aftermath.
The attorney general’s active role also underscores the degree to which the 2016 election still consumes significant resources and attention inside the federal government. Current and former intelligence and law enforcement officials expressed frustration and alarm Monday that the head of the Justice Department was taking such a direct role in re-examining what they view as conspiracy theories and baseless allegations of misconduct.
Barr has already made overtures to British intelligence officials, and last week the attorney general traveled 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. It was not Barr’s first trip to Italy to meet intelligence officials, the person said.
The Trump administration has made similar requests of Australia, these people said.
Trump asked the Australian prime minister and other foreign leaders to help Barr with an investigation into the origins of the Russia probe.
A Justice Department official says Trump initiated the calls at Barr’s request. The official wasn’t authorized to discuss the matter publicly and insisted on anonymity.
The official says the recent call with Australia was one of a “number of times” the president has made similar introductory phone calls for the attorney general as part of Durham’s investigation into the origins of the special counsel’s Russia probe.
The official says Trump told Prime Minister Scott Morrison that the attorney general would be contacting his Australian counterpart.
A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment.
The president still complains frequently that those involved in the investigation of his campaign should be charged with crimes, saying the FBI search for possible election season collusion between Russia and Trump campaign officials was a witch hunt, spurred by agents and bureaucrats opposed to Trump becoming president.
That investigation ended earlier this year when special counsel Robert Mueller determined that there was insufficient evidence to charge any Americans with conspiring with Russia, and declined to reach a decision about whether the president had sought to obstruct justice
David Laufman, a former Justice Department official who was involved in the early stages of the Russia probe, said it was “fairly unorthodox for the attorney general personally to be flying around the world as a point person to further evidence-gathering for a specific Justice Department investigation,” and especially so in Barr’s case.
“Even if one questions, as a threshold matter, the propriety of conducting a reinvestigation 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.”
Associated Press contributed.