The investigations into the Russia investigations, explained

What we know about Attorney General William Barr’s inquiry and the other ongoing reviews.

By Jen Kirbyjen.kirby@vox.com May 29, 2019, 10:30am EDT

"INVESTIGATE THE INVESTIGATORS,” President Donald Trump tweeted in April, days before the Justice Department released the Mueller report to the public.

Trump and his Republican allies in Congress have argued throughout the years-long investigation into the Trump campaign’s possible ties to Russia that the entire probe began based on shoddy intelligence and that federal law enforcement illegally spied on members of the campaign.

But now that special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe has concluded — and Trump has a particularly receptive attorney general running the Justice Department — the push to “investigate the investigators” has moved from rhetoric to reality.

There are several reviews of the Russia probe currently underway, both of which predate Barr. They include one by the Justice Department’s internal watchdog, whose findings are expected in the coming weeks, and another inquiry overseen by Utah federal prosecutor John Huber, which was prompted by Republican complaints about the Russia probe and the handling of Hillary Clinton-related scandals.

Attorney General William Barr is also conducting his own inquiry. Barr tapped the US attorney for Connecticut to help examine the origins of the Russia probe.

But media reports suggest the AG is closely invested in this process. And last week, the president gave Barr’s inquiry a substantial boost. At Barr’s request, Trump signed a memo ordering US intelligence agencies to cooperate with Barr and giving the AG sweeping powers to declassify intelligence documents as part of his audit.

Barr, who took over both the Justice Department and oversight of the Mueller investigation in February, has given credence to allegations, nursed by Trump and some top Republicans on Capitol Hill, that law enforcement might have spied on Trump’s campaign and that authorities overreached when they opened the investigation into the Trump campaign in 2016.

Barr told lawmakers in April that he had questions and concerns about “both the genesis and the conduct of intelligence activities directed at the Trump campaign during 2016.” He reiterated his concerns about law enforcement’s conduct during his Senate testimony in May….

https://www.vox.com/2019/5/29/18634410/russia-investigations-barr-trump-explained