The New York Times reported on Thursday that former Attorney General Bill Barr actually signed off on a criminal investigation into former President Donald Trump after he received a tip from Italian government officials that he believed was too credible to ignore.
Charlie Savage, one of the reporters who broke that story, appeared on Nicolle Wallace's MSNBC show to discuss his reporting and its significance to special counsel John Durham's years-long investigation into the government's investigation into the 2016 Trump campaign's multiple contacts with Russian agents.
Wallace asked Savage to provide more details about the evidence that Barr saw that prompted him to open up a probe into Trump, but he said that there was still a lot of "murk" about what had been found.
What's more, he noted that Durham didn't bring any charges based on the tip they received, which means that it's possible that the information given by the Italian officials simply didn't pan out.
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Savage also imagined what Trump's reaction would have been had he known his own attorney general authorized an investigation into his prospective links to criminal activity.
"Imagine if it had become public, when Trump was still president, that Durham and Barr had opened a new criminal investigation involving Trump?" he asked. "That would have been amazing. But that did not become public until now."
Even without that criminal probe, Trump was nonetheless impeached on two separate occasions: Once for trying to shake down the Ukrainian government for dirt on political rivals, and the second time for inciting a deadly riot at the United States Capitol building.
Watch the video below or at this link.
Reporter imagines Trump's reaction to Bill Barr opening criminal probe into him www.youtube.com
