Damage control or seeking an explanation of language used? Spying or authorised surveillance?
Was Barr's choice of words premature?
"What we know is that this has been investigated five times previously by Republican-led committees and nothing came of it. The Justice Department has been defending its practices here, they've been investigated internally and they've been investigated externally, and when Senator Reed in that clip you showed, pressed the Attorney General, do you have evidence for this claim, he said, "Well, no."
By all means investigate but maybe be more precise with terminology.
"He claimed that our own intelligence agencies were "spying" on the Trump campaign during the 2016 election, and promised to investigate the origins of Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference into the election. Yet, he feigned ignorance about what the word "spying" meant when offered the chance to clarify his statements."
""These comments directly contradict what DOJ previously told us," tweeted House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, who authorized the subpoena for the Mueller report. "I've asked DOJ to brief us immediately." "The top law enforcement officer of the country should not casually suggest that those under his purview engaged in 'spying' on a political campaign," said House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, a California Democrat."
"And Barr knows full well there are checks and balances in place both at the FBI and the intelligence community before this form of intelligence collection is used. It's arguable that he doesn't even have any sort of authority to review the way collection was done in the intelligence community. Certainly he might have some oversight at DOJ, but that process has been done in Congress repeatedly."
