Attorney General William Barr doubles down on spying claims, questions origins of Russia probe

Attorney General William Barr is not backing down from claims that he believes unauthorized spying took place on President Trump's campaign during the 2016 presidential election as the Justice Department makes moves to investigate the origins of the Russia probe. FBI officials have denied that the agency spied on the president's campaign.

In two separate interviews, Barr doubled down on his assertion that illegal spying did take place, a claim he made before senators last month. In a conversation with Fox News' Bill Hemmer on "America's Newsroom," Barr suggested that he wanted to get to the bottom of whether "government officials abused their power and put their thumb on the scale" during the Russia investigation. He criticized unnamed officials as providing "inadequate" explanations for what took place.

"People have to find out what the government was doing during that period," said Barr, adding that if the U.S. government is concerned about foreign influence in the U.S. election process, it should be equally worried about potential abuses of power within the federal government. Barr said he wouldn't "speculate" on when such alleged spying exactly started.

In a separate interview with the Wall Street Journal, Barr appeared more certain, asserting, "Government power was used to spy on American citizens."

"I can't imagine any world where we wouldn't take a look and make sure that was done properly," he added.

Barr had previously told lawmakers that he was assembling a team at the Justice Department to "review the conduct of the investigation" and wanted to "try to get my arms around all the aspects of the counterintelligence investigation that was conducted during the summer of 2016." That investigation into the origins of the Russia probe is separate from the long-running Office of Inspector General investigation into the Justice Department's handling of the Russia investigation.

Barr told Fox that the initial Russia probe was handled on an "ad hoc approach" by many DOJ and FBI officials that have since left the federal government.