William Barr Will Connect Russia Bounty Story To Obamagate, Ex-FBI Agent Says
Former FBI Special Agent Asha Rangappa took to Twitter on Monday to predict that Attorney General William Barr will use his power at the Department of Justice (DOJ) to help Donald Trump amid accusations that the president stayed silent on reports of Russian intelligence groups offering the Taliban bounties to kill U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.
“Folks, we are about to experience the mother of all gaslights in response to the Putin bounties,” she tweeted. “My wager: Bill Barr is going to launch an ‘investigation’ into the ‘leaker’ who gave the story to the NY Times which is also going to somehow become magically connected to Obamagate.”
The recent New York Times report claimed that Trump’s White House was presented with multiple options for responding to the Russian bounty allegations and has yet to take action. As The Inquisitr reported, The Washington Post’s David Ignatius recently alleged that military leaders applied pressure on the president to address the situation, to no avail.
As noted by Raw Story, during his most recent tenure heading the DOJ, Barr has faced criticism for using his position to benefit the Trump administration. Most recently, he came under the lens when he announced that U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Geoffrey Berman — who was allegedly investigating Trump allies — would be stepping down from his position. Afterward, Barr claimed Trump fired Berman, which the president denied.
Barr also faced scrutiny intervening in the prosecution of Roger Stone, a former Trump campaign official who was charged with obstruction of justice, lying to Congress, and witness tampering.
Barr previously appointed John Bash, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas, to review the “unmasking” requests that Barack Obama’s administration submitted against Trump associates, Yahoo News reported. This investigation will act as support to John Durham’s probe into the origins of the 2016 probe into Russia and Trump’s campaign, According to the president’s Obamagate theory, his predecessor engaged in illegal activity through his activity in purportedly pushing this investigation.
Despite the claims of Trump and his allies, The Guardian reported that Barr threw cold water on the possibility that Obama or then-Vice President Joe Biden would face criminal charges for their role in the probe.
“As to President Obama and vice-president Biden, whatever their level of involvement, based on the information I have today, I don’t expect Mr Durham’s work will lead to a criminal investigation of either man.”
“Not every abuse of power, no matter how outrageous, is necessarily a federal crime,” the attorney general added.
