5/29/2019

ATTORNEY GENERAL/INTELLIGENCE/JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/RUSSIA INVESTIGATION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Key allies who share intelligence with the United States could soon be dragged into the middle of Attorney General Bill Barr’s politically-charged Justice Department review of how the Russia investigation began. President Donald Trump has said he wants Barr to look into the role key intelligence partners, including the United Kingdom and Australia, played in the origins of Russia probe. He has said he could raise the issue with the British Prime Minister Theresa May during his state visit next week and suggested he may ask her about his accusation that Britain spied on his 2016 presidential campaign. In describing the scope of Barr’s mission to declassify and study the pre-election Obama-era intelligence, among several other topics, Trump told reporters, ‘I hope he looks at the UK and I hope he looks at Australia and I hope he looks at Ukraine.’ For now, those allies are trying to stay out of the fray, arguing it’s a domestic issue. But the President has granted Barr — not the intelligence community — sweeping powers to decide what intelligence can be declassified.”

Alex Marquardt and Zachary Cohen, “US intelligence partners wary of Barr’s Russia review,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, May 29, 2019 4:58 am