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POTUS orders intel agencies to cooperate with Barr probe into 'spying' on 2016 campaign
[The Hill] President Trump has ordered U.S. intelligence officials to cooperate with Attorney General William Barr's investigation into "surveillance activities" directed at the president's 2016 campaign, the White House said Thursday.Trump also gave Barr "full and complete authority" to declassify information related to the investigation, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement. The notice comes as Barr is conducting a review of what he has described as "spying" on members of the Trump campaign during the investigation into Russian interference. Sanders said Trump had directed the intelligence community to "quickly and fully" cooperate with the investigation at Barr's own request. "Today’s action will help ensure that all Americans learn the truth about the events that occurred, and the actions that were taken, during the last Presidential election and will restore confidence in our public institutions," Sanders said. Barr told senators last month that he was reviewing the "genesis and conduct" of intelligence collection on members of the Trump campaign during the period of the 2016 election, saying he believed the campaign was spied on. Barr’s use of the term triggered massive protest from Democrats, who viewed it as legitimizing a conspiracy theory. FBI Director Christopher Wray, who was appointed by Trump to replace James Comey, seemed to distance himself from Barr’s use of the term earlier this month when he told a Senate panel that he wouldn’t use the term "spying" to describe government investigations. Trump and Republicans, who have long alleged the Russia investigation was started by FBI agents biased against the president, have heralded Barr’s decision to look into the origins of the investigation. Posted by: Besoeker 2019-05-24 |
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