Graham Asks Foreign Leaders To Help With Barr’s Shady Investigation

WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 12: Committee chairman Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) speaks during a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee March 12, 2019 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is urging foreign leaders to cooperate with Attorney General Bill Barr’s efforts to investigate the investigators.

As he promised earlier this week, Graham wrote to the prime ministers of Australia, Italy and the United Kingdom on Wednesday asking the leaders to assist Barr in his efforts to “investigate the origins and extent of foreign influence in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.” Many have characterized Barr’s investigation as an effort to actually discredit Mueller’s probe.

After reports surfaced this week that President Trump and Barr have attempted to communicate with at least three different countries’ leaders to gather information about the origins of the Russia probe, Graham told Fox News that Barr was just doing his job. He expanded on that sentiment further in the letter.

“One of the principal duties of the U.S. attorney general is to supervise ongoing investigations within the Justice Department. Moreover, as you are undoubtedly aware, Australia, Italy and the United Kingdom routinely exchange law enforcement information with each other to assist in the course of investigations,” he wrote. “That the attorney general is holding meetings with your countries to aid in the Justice Department’s investigation of what happened is well within the bounds of his normal activities.”

Earlier this week, Graham argued that the reports on Barr’s global efforts to discredit the probe were just a coordinated effort by the media to “shut down” his investigation. Barr has long heartily embraced President Trump and other prominent Republicans’ “investigate the investigators” posture toward Mueller’s report, believing that U.S. intelligence agencies acted improperly in securing a warrant to surveil a member of President Trump’s 2016 campaign.

Read the letter below:

Latest News
101
Show Comments

Notable Replies

  1. Extraordinary

    Desperation

  2. I am in such disbelief that this country is being run by crooks, liars, conspiracy theorists and thieves. And, all they’re interested in doing is muddying the waters with their BS to save tRump and themselves.
    We’ve got a long row to hoe to get rid of them and move onto a saner country.

  3. Is there anyone who still doubts that they secretly asked for help (or accepted an offer of help) from Russia in 2016…

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

95 more replies

Participants

Avatar for josephebacon Avatar for srfromgr Avatar for imkmu3 Avatar for rollinnolan Avatar for thepsyker Avatar for ralph_vonholst Avatar for jeffrey Avatar for khaaannn Avatar for thunderclapnewman Avatar for henk Avatar for dommyluc Avatar for tsp Avatar for jtx Avatar for demyankee Avatar for birdford Avatar for greysea Avatar for bazarov Avatar for redhand Avatar for yellowbeard Avatar for txlawyer Avatar for rascal_crone Avatar for bunnyvelour Avatar for rucleare Avatar for emiliano4

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: