WASHINGTON - Attorney General William Barr believes the Russia investigation that shadowed President Donald Trump for the first two years of his administration was started without any basis and amounted to an effort to “sabotage the presidency,” he said in an interview with Fox News Channel. Barr, who has appointed a U.S. attorney to lead an investigation into the origins of the Russia probe, said the Justice Department has evidence there was “something far more troubling” than just mistakes during the investigation that eventually morphed into special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe. Trump and his supporters are counting on different conclusions from the separate investigation led by John Durham, the U.S. attorney Barr selected to examine the early days of the Russia probe. The inspector general’s report identified significant problems with applications to receive and renew warrants to monitor the communications of former Trump campaign aide Carter Page in 2016 and 2017. The FBI opened its investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia on July 31, 2016.

Source: thestar April 10, 2020 03:05 UTC