Probe of Russia inquiry fuels Trump-barr tensions
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump increasingly is at odds with Attorney General William Barr over the status of the Justice Department’s investigation into the origin of the Russia probe, with the president increasingly critical about a lack of arrests and Barr frustrated by Trump’s public pronouncements about the case, according to people familiar with the matter.
Trump and his allies had high hopes for the investigation led by U.S. Attorney John Durham of Connecticut, betting that it would expose what they see as wrongdoing when the FBI opened a case into whether the Trump campaign was coordinating with Russia to sway the 2016 election. Trump also has pushed to tie prominent Obama administration officials to that effort as part of his campaign against Joe Biden, who was serving as vice president at the time.
But a year and a half into the investigation, and with less than one month until Election Day, there has been only one criminal case: a former FBI lawyer who pleaded guilty to altering a government email about a former Trump campaign adviser who was a target of secret FBI surveillance.
With time running out for pre-election action on the case, Trump increasingly is airing his dissatisfaction in tweets and television appearances. Barr, meanwhile, privately has expressed frustration over the public comments, according to a person familiar with his thinking. It’s not dissimilar to a situation earlier this year, when Trump complained publicly that he believed that ally Roger Stone was getting a raw deal in his prosecution, even as Barr already had moved to amend a sentencing position of the prosecutors in the case.
Despite Trump’s unhappiness, there’s no indication Barr’s job is at risk in the final weeks of the campaign. Still, the tensions between Trump and the attorney general over the fate of the probe underscore the extent to which the president aggressively is trying to use all the levers of his power to gain ground in an election that has been moving away from him.
This account is based on interviews with six people who have direct knowledge of Trump and Barr’s relationship. They were not authorized to talk publicly, and they spoke on condition of anonymity.
A senior administration official said Trump feels like he’s given Barr wide latitude to advance the investigation, including declassifying documents related to Russia. In the absence of blockbuster findings, Trump now is moving to make documents public himself with his new acting head of intelligence.
On Thursday morning, Trump did not hide his displeasure in an interview on Fox News Business.
“Unless Bill Barr indicts these people for crimes — the greatest political crime in the history of our country — then we’ll get little satisfaction, unless I win,” he said. “Because I won’t forget it. But these people should be indicted. These are people who spied on my campaign. And we have everything. And I say, Bill, we’ve got plenty, you don’t need anymore. We’ve got so much.”
The comment followed an earlier barrage of presidential social media posts, including one in which Trump retweeted a doctored image of Barr superimposed with the late “Saturday Night Live” actor Chris Farley in character as a motivational speaker yelling at him. The caption: “for the love of God ARREST SOMEBODY.”
The Justice Department declined to comment on the matter. The White House did not immediately comment.
It is unclear when Durham plans to submit his report or how damning any of his final conclusions might be.
Barr privately has expressed frustration over the president’s public pronouncements on the Durham investigation. Though Barr is broadly in agreement with Trump on the need to investigate the origins of the Russia probe, he’s often bemoaned Trump’s lack of understanding about the intricacies of the legal system and the steps that need to be taken to complete an investigation.
A friend of Barr said there has been obvious “tension” between the president and the attorney general, and while Barr believes deeply in the importance of the Durham investigation and in the president’s authority to exercise control over federal agencies, he will not tolerate interference in specific investigations.