AG Barr offers forceful endorsement of FBI after suggesting it may have acted in 'bad faith' in Russia probe
Attorney General William Barr offered a forceful endorsement of the FBI and Director Christopher Wray on Wednesday, a week after suggesting the bureau may have acted in "bad faith" during the Russia investigation.
"There is no finer law enforcement agency in the world than the FBI," Barr said during an event in Detroit, where he shared the stage with the FBI director and other federal law enforcement leaders. "I am very grateful to the leadership being provided by Chris Wray."
Barr's earlier criticism of the FBI followed the release of a scathing report by the Justice Department's inspector general, who identified more than a dozen errors in the FBI's applications to wiretap former Trump campaign aide Carter Page in 2016 and 2017.
The inspector general's report, while largely focused on the flawed justifications to conduct surveillance on Page, concluded the FBI was warranted in launching the broader Russia inquiry and did not act out of political bias.
Barr disputed those findings, asserting in an interview with NBC News last week that the Russia investigation was based on a "completely bogus narrative."
He said the FBI's "inexplicable" conduct "leaves open the possibility that there was bad faith."
President Donald Trump weighed in, criticizing Wray for citing the inspector general's finding that the Russia inquiry was properly authorized.
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On Wednesday, Barr presented a united front, standing with Wray and the leaders of the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the U.S. Marshals Service.
The attorney general said the Detroit event, staged to announce a seven-city crackdown on violent crime, marked a rare gathering of top Justice Department leaders outside of Washington, D.C.
Under the initiative, called Operation Relentless Pursuit, more federal agents will be brought on to work with local police in seven cities around the U.S.
The federal government has allocated up to $71 million to be divided between Detroit, Memphis, Baltimore, Kansas City, Cleveland, Milwaukee and Albuquerque.
The event came a day after the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court issued a rare public rebuke of the FBI's surveillance of Page.
The secretive court, which approves requests to conduct sensitive surveillance, claimed the FBI misled the Justice Department and the court when it sought permission to wiretap Page.
Presiding Judge Rosemary Collyer described the FBI's conduct as "antithetical to the heightened duty of candor" expected of the bureau.
"The frequency with which representations made by FBI personnel turned out to be unsupported or contradicted by information in their possession, and with which they withheld information detrimental to their case, calls into question whether information contained in other FBI applications is reliable," Collyer wrote in an unusual public opinion.
Barr said Wednesday he and Wray are "working hand-in-hand" to address the failures outlined by the inspector general, and Wray didn't wait for the report to be released before proposing a number of reforms.
Wray has characterized the inspector general's findings as "unacceptable and unrepresentative" of the bureau. He reasserted Wednesday that he has ordered more than 40 corrective actions, some of which go beyond the recommendations of the inspector general.
Contributing: Joe Guillen, Detroit Free Press