Attorney General William Barr massaged the findings of the Department of Justice investigation into the origins of the Russia probe -- and legal experts and other social media users were appalled.

The attorney general claimed this report, like special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, had cleared President Donald Trump of wrongdoing, and insisted the probe had found the FBI had conducted an improper investigation of his 2016 presidential campaign.

“The Inspector General’s report now makes clear that the FBI launched an intrusive investigation of a U.S. presidential campaign on the thinnest of suspicions that, in my view, were insufficient to justify the steps taken," Barr said in a statement. "It is also clear that, from its inception, the evidence produced by the investigation was consistently exculpatory.”

Former GOP lawmaker William Cohen, who was among the congressional Republicans who turned on former President Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal, tells NBC News that there is no way his party will ever turn on President Donald Trump.

Reflecting on the differences today between the GOP under Trump and Nixon, Cohen said that GOP officials in the 1970s felt far more free to challenge their own party's president than they do today.