By Evan Perez, CNN Justice Correspondent
Updated 5:16 PM ET, Wed May 13, 2020
Washington (CNN)A year after managing the release of Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, Attorney General William Barr is helping to write a postscript that seeks to unravel much of what the special counsel concluded.
Barr, long a critic of the investigation into possible Trump campaign links to 2016 Russian election meddling, has been closely managing Justice Department investigations that are delivering an alternative narrative to that found by Mueller.
One led by St. Louis US Attorney Jeffrey Jensen, a re-examination of the prosecution and guilty plea of former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn, recently prompted the Justice Department to seek to drop charges in the case despite Flynn’s guilty plea. Flynn was one of Mueller’s highest-profile prosecutions and Barr now says there was no crime and no reason to even investigate Flynn.
Another, led by Connecticut US Attorney John Durham, is taking a broader look at the origins of intelligence that led to the Russia investigation. Among the issues Durham is examining, according to witnesses interviewed, is whether US intelligence properly concluded that the Russian government aimed to help President Donald Trump’s election.
Mueller’s two-year investigation concluded that not only was Russian election interference aimed at helping Trump win, but members of the Trump campaign welcomed and encouraged the help. A bipartisan Senate investigation also supported an earlier US intelligence community report that also concluded the Russians aimed to boost Trump’s election.
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Article URL : https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/13/politics/william-barr-trump-grenell-flynn-investigation/index.html