In a press conference on Monday, May 18, Attorney General William Barr gave an update on the probe into the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation.

The Attorney General noted that the two-year long probe into whether President Trump and his presidential campaign had colluded with the Russians was, in his view, a grave injustice.

“What happened to the president, and I have said this many times, what happened to the president in the 2016 election in the first two years of his administration was abhorrent. It was a grave injustice and it was unprecedented in American history,” the Attorney General said.

“The law enforcement and intelligence apparatus of this country were involved in advancing a false and utterly baseless Russian collusion narrative against the president. The proper investigative and prosecutorial standards of the Department of Justice were abused, in my view, in order to reach a particular result.”

Now the Attorney General and U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut, John Durham, are investigating why the Obama Administration began investigating the Trump campaign, and whether any crimes were committed.

Congressional Democrats, however, believe Attorney General Barr is politicizing the Justice Department, and have called for the Justice Department Inspector General to look into the matter.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., along with 23 other Congressional Democrats, wrote to Inspector General Michael Horowitz, “Simply put, the Attorney General is prohibited from putting his thumb on the scale in favor of the President, time and time again. We write to request an investigation by your office into a pattern of conduct that includes improper political interference, ignoring standards for recusal, and abrogating Attorney General guidelines.”

However, the two-time Attorney General says he’s just doing his job. In a recent interview with CBS News, Catherine Herridge asked Barr if he was doing the President’s bidding. “No, I’m doing the law’s bidding. I’m doing my duty under the law, as I see it,” he responded.

 

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