President Donald J. Trump speaks with reporters Thursday, Sept. 10, 2020, at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, prior to boarding Air Force One for his trip to Michigan. (Official White House photo by Tia Dufour)
A newly released government document shows that one of the members of the Mueller team investigating the now-debunked Russian collusion claims made by Democrats during the 2016 election fretted that those prosecuting onetime national security adviser Michael Flynn had a "get Trump" attitude.
It was FBI agent William J. Barnett, who served on FBI special counsel Robert Mueller's team, who was interviewed on Sept. 17 at the Justice Department by Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri Jeffrey Jensen.
Jensen was asked by Attorney General William Barr to review the case against Flynn. An appeals court has returned that dispute to a trial court judge who now must decide if he will grant a DOJ motion to dismiss charges against Flynn.
The judge, Emmet Sullivan, earlier refused to grant that dismissal motion, made after the DOJ determined the interview of Flynn in which he allegedly lied to investigators had no legal foundation.
Sullivan even has fought the request to dismiss the charges against Flynn, engaging outside counsel to argue against the move.
Fox News reports the documents with Barnett's comments, in which he also said he did not want to pursue a Trump-Russia collusion investigation as it was "not there," recently have surfaced.
Fox said it reviewed an FBI 302 document regarding Barnett's comments, a document that was filed by the government Friday in the Flynn case.
"Barnett, during his interview, detailed his work at the FBI, and his assignment to the bureau's original cases against Flynn and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. Barnett said the Flynn investigation was assigned the code name 'Crossfire Razor,' which was part of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation — the bureau’s code name for the original Trump-Russia probe," Fox reported.
But he said he considered the Trump-Russia review "opaque" and "with little detail concerning specific evidence of criminal events," Fox said.
The government document revealed "Barnett thought the case theory was 'supposition on supposition.'"
His other comments included the plan was "not great" and "not clear." Even after six weeks of work, Barnett confirmed, he still was "unsure" why the investigation was going on.
He said he wanted to interview Flynn, but was cautioned against it, and, in fact, denied permission.
His comment was that he understood that was on orders from the top of the FBI, but he said he thought the Flynn investigation was "problematic and could result in an inspector general investigation."
The government document stated, "Barnett still did not see any evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. Barnett was willing to follow any instructions being given by the deputy director as long as it was not a violation of the law."
In 2017 he gave a briefing on the Flynn case to lawyers from Mueller's office, the report
"Barnett said he briefly went over the investigation, including the assessment that there was no evidence of a crime, and then discussed [REDACTED], which he thought was the more significant investigation," the government document said.
It was after now-fired FBI agent Peter Strzok told him he wanted Barnett working with the special counsel that Barnett told Strzok the investigation was "not there."
However, he did agree to help the Mueller team.
"Barnett added that he believed the appointment of Mueller in May 2017 'changed everything,' and described the situation pertaining to the special counsel's office as ''upside down' with attorneys drafting search warrants and getting agents to simply act as affiants,' the 302 stated.
Fox reported that the document revealed, "Barnett thought there was a 'get Trump' attitude by some at the SCO."
For example, when the president had commented that investigators should "get to the bottom" of the issue, one of the special counsel lawyers claimed Trump wanted to "cover it up."
Barnett also said it seemed Mueller's team "wanted to part of something 'big,' a successful prosecution."
The government document said the attitude he found was that investigators claimed the evidence was there, they "just have to find it."
"Barnett said it seems there was always someone at SCO who claimed to have a lead on information that would prove collusion, only to have the information be a dead end," the 302 said.
And, the document said, "Barnett believed the prosecution of Flynn by Mueller's office was used as a means to 'get Trump.'"
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