Former FBI agent rains hell on Bill Barr for slinging around Hannity-style 'deep state' conspiracy theories

Former FBI special agent Asha Rangappa on Wednesday took a hammer to Attorney General Bill Barr for baselessly claiming that the Trump campaign was improperly spied upon during the 2016 presidential election.

During his Senate testimony, Barr said that he thought "spying did occur" of Trump's campaign, although he later backtracked and said, "I have no specific evidence I can cite right now" to back up those claims.

Rangappa quickly jumped on Twitter to shoot down Barr's allegations about improper spying on the Trump campaign -- and she pointed to the various hoops that FBI agents had to have jumped through in order to get authorization to investigate potential Trump campaign ties to Russia.

"All investigative techniques have various layers of approval," she writes. "The more intrusive they are, the higher they go up the food chain, including and up to the AG and to a judge, for authorization. So using a word like 'spying' is loaded and deceptive -- specify the technique. In addition, any nat sec investigation on a USPER (just the opening of the case, before anything happens) or a case that is based on gathering foreign intel has to be reported to DOJ NSD. In other words, a 'few people at the FBI' can’t do this on their own."

Rangappa then points out that special counsel Robert Mueller, who had previously served as FBI director, would have certainly taken note if he'd seen that surveillance operations were undertaken without proper protocols being followed.

"Anyway, Mueller knows these rules and was FBI Director for 13 yrs -- and took over this entire investigation," she argues. "He would have gone through predicates and bases for techniques used with a fine-toothed comb before going further. Or is Barr suggesting he is part of the 'conspiracy'?"

Read the whole tweet storm below.