Barr shoots down idea of investigating Obama or Biden amid Trump's 'Obamagate' claims

Even as President Trump continues to level baseless allegations of illegal actions against his predecessor, Attorney General William Barr said Monday former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Joe Biden are not expected to face criminal investigations stemming from a review of the Russia probe.

Trump in recent days has obliquely accused Obama of committing "the biggest political crime in American history, by far" while not actually going into detail about what he's referring to or providing any evidence of supposed criminal actions related to the Russia investigation and the "unmasking" of Michael Flynn.

But in a press conference on Monday, Barr said he has a "general idea" of how prosecutor John Durham's review of the Russia probe's origins is going and that "based on the information I have today, I don't expect Mr. Durham's work will lead to a criminal investigation of either man," referring to Biden and Obama. In Durham's investigation, "some aspects of the matter are being examined as potential crimes," but "our concern over potential criminality is focused on others," he said.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Barr during the press conference also promised that "as long as I'm attorney general, the criminal justice system will not be used for partisan, political ends," decrying "efforts to drum up criminal investigations of either candidate." At the same time, Barr asserted that "what happened to the president in the 2016 election," referring to what he called a "false and utterly baseless Russian collusion narrative" against Trump, was "abhorrent" and a "grave injustice." Brendan Morrow