Former Attorney General William Barr conceded that there will be no civil or criminal accountability for the FBI after the controversial Russiagate investigation and coverup that targeted former President Donald Trump.
However, he appeared to concede that the FBI has taken damage to its reputation but is being protected by mainstream media outlets.
“Well, reputation in this country is largely under the control of the mainstream media, which likes to overlook these kinds of sins. But I think the story will be told, and maybe in a more sober age, people will appreciate how destructive and damaging to the country this was,” Barr said.
The FBI has received criticism from Trump and other Republicans about its Crossfire Hurricane investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia in 2016. Ultimately, federal investigators found that there was no Trump–Russia collusion, although during the early years of Trump’s presidency, there were selective leaks to corporate media outlets that there had been.
“In July [2016], before the election, they pounced on the flimsiest pretext, on the idea that there was collusion between Trump and the Russians, which is something the Clinton campaign was trying to whip up,” Barr told the paper. “And they jumped on it. I don’t think there was a predicate for them to do it. And they started this investigation [Crossfire Hurricane] of the campaign.
“I was hoping that there'd be accountability at the FBI.”
However, following special counsel John Durham’s losses in two court cases, it’s unlikely, Barr said.
Despite the lack of convictions from Durham, Barr said the special counsel’s investigations were still an important endeavor because “it became very clear that the issue wasn’t whether there was collusion with Russia by the Trump campaign.”
“The real question was how this false narrative got started and why people doubled down on it after the [2016] election and when they knew that it really was nonsense,” he said. “And so, I think [Durham] is getting as much to the bottom of it as anyone could and I think, ultimately, will write a report, which is what I asked him to do.”
In closing arguments in the trial of Igor Danchenko, who was acquitted, Durham assailed FBI agents for not vetting claims in the controversial dossier authored by former UK spy Christopher Steele. In 2016, Steele concocted the dossier on behalf of a third party that was retained by Democratic lawyers.
With the evidence presented during the trial, jurors could conclude that the FBI “mishandled the investigation,” according to Durham.
