The former top FBI lawyer during the Russia probe believes that President Trump owes him and the rest of the FBI an apology after the release of the Department of Justice inspector general’s report.
During an appearance on CNN host Chris Cuomo’s show Monday night, former FBI general counsel James Baker pointed out how Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s 476-page report found that the FBI was justified in launching its Trump-Russia investigation.
“The conclusions are quite clear that the President’s statements over these past several years were all wrong,” Baker said. “That there was no hoax, there was no conspiracy to overthrow anybody, there was no sedition, there was no treason, there was no evidence of any of that.”
Baker then argued that “the President should apologize to us” for pushing conspiracy theories about the origins of the Russia probe that were debunked by the report.
“I think the President should apologize to us,” Baker said. “I respectfully ask him, I would ask him to apologize to me, to my colleagues, because the things he said are just wrong. And I think he should step up and do that at a minimum.”
Baker added that he found Attorney General William Barr’s criticism of the FBI in response to the report “quite surprising and just not appropriate.”
“I found it really quite surprising and just not appropriate under these circumstances given what he said and given what the IG had found,” Baker said.
Upon the report’s release Monday afternoon, both Barr and Connecticut U.S. Attorney John Durham issued statements that strikingly opposed Horowitz’s findings. After stating that he and Barr “advised the Inspector General that we do not agree with some of the report’s conclusions as to predication and how the FBI case was opened,” Durham also said in his statement that he was relying on evidence beyond the “component parts of the Justice Department.”
Watch Baker’s remarks below:
James Baker: "I think the President should apologize to us." pic.twitter.com/vSCgqDXWr2
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) December 10, 2019
