June 3, 2022 Updated: June 3, 2022
Former Attorney General William Barr called the Russiagate “a dirty political trick” against former President Donald Trump and criticized the justice system as “rigged” to target Republicans.
“I thought we were heading into a constitutional crisis,” Barr told conservative talk radio host Glenn Beck in a recent episode, after being asked about his return to politics between 2019 and 2020. Barr then brought up the Russia probe against Donald Trump, the second president he served as the attorney general after George H.W. Bush.
“Whatever you think of Trump,” he explained, “the fact is that the whole Russiagate thing was a grave injustice. It appears to be a dirty political trick that was used first to hobble him and then potentially to drive him from office.”
He said he believes Hillary Clinton’s Russiagate scandal was “seditious,” referencing the scheme that began in early 2016 to vilify Trump as an agent of the Kremlin.
Such remarks, however, were soon followed by the acquittal of Michael Sussmann as a jury on May 31 found him not guilty of lying to the FBI. Prosecutors accused the former Clinton campaign cybersecurity lawyer of not disclosing who he worked for to a top FBI official ahead of the 2016 election.
His tip—an alleged link between then-presidential candidate Donald Trump and Russia—also failed to prove any Russian collusion.
The jury, from a largely Democrat-leaning pool of the nation’s capital, ultimately rejected the prosecution’s claims. Defense Attorney Sean Berkowitz accused Durham, who was appointed by Barr during the Trump Administration to probe the origins of the now disproven Russiagate, of picking evidence to fit a narrative.
“I do think there is a degree to which the system had a double standard, and still has a double standard, and is rigged against Republicans,” Barr said on the podcast. “For an example, while I was Attorney General, no case that was embarrassing to the Democrats was leaked. However, cases that hurt Republicans were leaked.”
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