Former CIA Director John Brennan called Special Prosecutor John Durham’s investigation into the origins of the probe into an alleged conspiracy between Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russian officials a “trolling exercise” on Friday and mocked outgoing Attorney General Bill Barr as “courageous.”
Brennan, who was the CIA director under President Barack Obama from 2013 to 2017, said there is no basis for the Durham’s investigation despite the FBI Inspector General’s report that accused intelligence officials of 17 serious errors of fact and omissions in the warrant that started the Russia probe.
Durham’s investigation already has secured a guilty plea of Kevin Clinesmith, a former FBI lawyer who admitted to altering a document in the Russia investigation.
Speaking on CNN, Brennan referred to an interview Barr gave The Wall Street Journal in which he said he saw no evidence of CIA misconduct in the probe.
"It really is courageous of Bill Barr to say this after he has already announced that he is going to be departing office," Brennan said on CNN.
"If there was no basis for this, why was I interviewed by Mr. Durham for eight hours? Bill Barr used to complain about he didn't see the predication for the FBI investigation into Trump engagements with the Russians. What was the predication of this Durham investigation?
"Was it just a trolling exercise? I think that's what it was. And they looked at a lot of documents, they talked to a lot of people. Again, they interviewed me. And clearly, they couldn't find anything that had any type of wrongdoing associated with it."
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