Attorney General Barr Details Significant Problems With FBI’s Surveillance of Trump Campaign

FBI 'misled the FISA court, omitted critical exculpatory facts,' and ignored unreliability of principal source

Attorney General William Barr speaks about the Justice Department's Russia investigation into the 2016 presidential campaign, during the Wall Street Journal's annual CEO Council meeting, at the Four Seasons Hotel on Dec. 10, 2019 in Washington. Mark Wilson/Getty Images

Attorney General William Barr gave an in-depth interview on Dec. 10 during a Wall Street Journal CEO Council conference, detailing material problems with the FBI’s FISA applications and the subsequent surveillance of members of the Trump campaign.

Barr had previously hinted at some of these issues in a statement he issued immediately following the release of the Inspector General’s December 2019 report on FISA abuse. In his official statement, Barr highlighted some of the major findings from the IG report while at the same time making clear that he disagreed with some of the conclusions contained within the IG report—including the Inspector General’s finding that the FBI had “adequate factual predication” to open their counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign.