BARR PRESSED FOREIGN OFFICIALS ON FBI, CIA PROBE

Probe looking into CIA, FBI activities

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 at the president’s adversaries.

But the high-level focus on intelligence operatives’ conduct will likely cheer 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 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 attention inside the U.S. 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.

Barr has already made overtures to British intelligence, and last week he travelled to Italy, where he and Durham met senior Italian officials and Barr asked the Italians to assist Durham, according to one person familiar with the matter. It was not his first trip to Italy to meet intelligence officials, the person said. The administration has made similar requests of Australia, these people said.

A Justice spokeswoman declined to comment.

David Laufman, a former Justice 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.