Barr hints at stricter procedures for counterintelligence probes into campaigns

Washington — Attorney General William Barr said he and FBI Director Christopher Wray have agreed to implement stricter procedures for opening counterintelligence probes into presidential campaigns, requiring investigators to get approval from both the attorney general and FBI director before moving forward with future investigations.

At a press conference at Justice Department headquarters on Monday, Barr fielded a question about how the FBI would handle investigations involving campaigns in the future, given recent revelations of misconduct by the FBI in its 2016 investigation.

"Well, we're considering a number of additional things," Barr said. "Chris Wray and I have discussed a number of possibilities. One of the things we have agreed on is that the opening of a counterintelligence investigation of a presidential campaign would be something the director of the FBI would have to sign off on, and the attorney general would have to sign off on."

In a report released in December, the Justice Department's inspector general detailed 17 "significant inaccuracies and omissions" in the bureau's applications for warrants to surveil former Trump campaign aide Carter Page under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, in 2016.




https://www.cbsnews.com/news/attorney-general-william-barr-hints-at-stricter-doj-procedures-for-fbi-counterintelligence-probes-into-campaigns/