US Attorney General William Barr on Monday quashed calls by US President Donald Trump for the Justice Department to investi
U. S. Attorney General William Barr on Monday quashed calls by U. S. President Donald Trump for the Justice Department to investigate his predecessor, Barack Obama, saying he doesn’t expect the department to probe either Obama or his vice president, Joe Biden, in connection with the controversial Russia investigation.
“As to President Obama and Vice President Biden, whatever their level of involvement, based on the information I have today, I don’t expect Mr. Durham’s work will lead to a criminal investigation of either man,” Barr said at a press conference, referring to a Justice Department review of the Russia investigation led by U. S. Attorney John Durham.
Barr claimed the Justice Department’s investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 U. S. presidential election to help Trump defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton involved abuses by law enforcement and intelligence agencies under the Obama administration. But citing a recent Supreme Court ruling involving the so-called Bridgegate scandal, he said not every abuse of power is a federal crime.
That scandal involved efforts by associates of former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie to retaliate against a political opponent by manufacturing massive traffic jams over the George Washington Bridge. On May 7, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that while the two officials had committed “deception, corruption and abuse of power,” federal laws do not “criminalize all such conduct.”
Barr’s comments came in response to a question about Trump’s calls for the Justice Department and Congress to investigate Obama for seeking a probe of Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn’s conversations with the Russian ambassador to Washington shortly before Trump took office in January 2017.
