CHICAGO -- Attorney General William Barr pushed back Monday on criticism that the Justice Department is investigating the origins of the Russia inquiry to help President Donald Trump settle personal legal and political scores, insisting that he does not serve as the president's personal lawyer.
"That's completely wrong and there is no basis for it," Barr said in an interview with Fox News on the sidelines of a major law enforcement conference in Chicago. "I act on behalf of the United States."
Barr also sought to distance himself from the investigation, though he is closely supervising it. Barr played down his overseas travel, which has gained attention in recent weeks, as an attempt to open doors for the lead investigator, the veteran prosecutor John Durham.
"He is in charge of the investigation," Barr said of Durham. "I'm not doing the investigation."
Barr's comments were his first public remarks after a cascade of revelations about the investigation, including that it has shifted from an administrative review to a criminal inquiry, meaning Durham can seek court orders for witness testimony and documents and convene a grand jury.
Depending on what Durham uncovers and when his findings are made public, his inquiry could provide a boon to Trump as he seeks re-election. The president has praised Barr for opening the investigation.
"Thank you, Bill. You're doing a great job," Trump said to Barr on Monday during a speech at the International Association of Chiefs of Police conference in Chicago. Trump asked the audience to applaud the attorney general to combat criticism of his work published by "the fake news."
Barr traveled to Chicago to attend Trump's speech, meet with local law enforcement agencies and visit federal prosecutors.
Barr's requests for help from foreign governments for the Durham investigation, including a pair of trips to Rome to meet with Italian intelligence officials, have drawn scrutiny because conservative allies of Trump have seized on those countries' roles in the start of the Russia investigation to stoke conspiracy theories.
Barr portrayed his requests as an effort to aid Durham. The attorney general said that foreign governments had asked about the scope and nature of the Durham investigation and how the Justice Department would handle confidential information. He said he fielded those questions to help Durham, not to manage his investigation.
"I initially discussed these matters with those countries and introduced them to John Durham and established a channel by which Durham can obtain assistance from those countries," Barr said, emphasizing that Durham was running his own investigation.
Durham, the U.S. attorney in Connecticut and a veteran of politically charged investigations, and his investigators have interviewed nearly 30 former and current FBI and intelligence officials. They have asked whether any of the officials who investigated Russia's 2016 election interference and possible links to the Trump campaign exhibited anti-Trump bias.
The Durham team has homed in on aspects of the Russia investigation that Trump and his allies have long criticized, including the decisions surrounding a secret application to wiretap Carter Page, a Trump campaign adviser who was suspected of being groomed to be a Russian asset. Page has denied those allegations.
To conduct a thorough review of an investigation, however, Durham would have to run down all leads, even those that earlier investigations dismissed.
Barr defended the Durham investigation as "thorough and fair," adding that Durham was "making great progress" but declining to detail it.
A Section on 10/29/2019