A recent national poll has found that nearly 4 out of 10 American voters believe President Donald Trump’s campaign was spied on during the 2016 presidential election.
Allegations that the spying had occurred resurfaced last week when Attorney General William Barr testified to Congress that he believes that spying did occur and that he was obligated to make sure that the Obama government’s surveillance was legally justified.
“I think spying did occur. Yes, I think spying did occur,” Barr said, followed by a moment of silence in the room.
“The question is whether it was predicated, adequately predicated,” he continued. “And I’m not suggesting it wasn’t adequately predicated, but I need to explore that. I think it’s my obligation.”
Later in the hearing, Barr said, “I believe there is a basis for my concern, but I’m not going to discuss the basis.”
Barr’s comments last week seemed to have confirmed Trump’s allegations.
Trump has long accused Obama administration officials of spying on his 2016 election campaign. The officials involved have denied this characterization, saying that the counterintelligence probe, officially launched by the FBI on July 31, 2016, was only aimed at four Americans who were connected to the campaign.
In that investigation, FBI officials obtained a spy warrant to monitor former Trump-campaign associate Carter Page. The underlying document the bureau used to obtain the warrant was the Steele dossier, which is a collection of unsubstantiated opposition research claiming Trump colluded with Russia to win the 2016 presidential election. The dossier was paid for by the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
Barr said at the April 10 hearing of the Senate Appropriations Committee that he intends to form a team to investigate potential surveillance abuses against the Trump campaign.
The connection between the Mueller investigation and the allegations of spying is the FBI’s counterintelligence probe of the Trump campaign, which predated the special counsel’s investigation.
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