Russia probe won’t look into Barack Obama and Joe Biden

Barack Obama and Joe Biden will not be criminally investigated as part of the probe into the origins of the Russia investigation.

Donald Trump in the White House on Tuesday. Picture: AP

Barack Obama and Joe Biden will not be criminally investigated as part of the probe into the origins of the Russia investigation.

The decision comes despite claims by Donald Trump that the former president and his vice-president were engaged in corrupt behaviour in seeking to undermine him in relation to the Russia probe shortly before his inauguration in January 2017.

The US President has dubbed his claims “Obamagate”, and says Mr Obama oversaw efforts to set up former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who was later sacked by Mr Trump for lying about his contacts with Russia.

“This was all Obama. This was all Biden. These people were corrupt — the whole thing was corrupt — and we caught them,” Mr Trump has said. “People should be going to jail for this stuff.”

But Attorney-General William Barr said on Tuesday (AEST) that the probe into the origins of the Russia investigation, headed by district attorney John Durham, would not look at Mr Obama or Mr Biden.

“As to president Obama and vice-president Biden, whatever their level of involvement, based on the information I have today, I don’t expect Mr Durham’s work will lead to a criminal investigation of either man,” Mr Barr said. “Our concern over potential criminality is focused on others.”

Mr Barr did not mention Mr Trump’s claims, which include allegations that Mr Obama directed US spy agencies to spy on him as part of a conspiracy to undermine him before he took office.

But Mr Barr did say — while noting he was not referring specifically to Mr Trump’s claims — that he was opposed to “increasing attempts to use the criminal justice system as a political weapon”.

“The legal tactic has been to gin up allegations of criminality by one’s political opponents based on the flimsiest of legal theories,” Mr Barr said. “This is not a good ­development.”

He said he would not allow the election process to “be hijacked by efforts to drum up criminal investigations of either candidate. I am committed that this election will be conducted without this kind of interference.”

Mr Trump later said he was a “little surprised” by Mr Barr’s announcement, adding that “if it was me, I guarantee they’d be going after me”. But he called Mr Barr an “honourable man” and said he would rely on him to “make all of those decisions”.

Mr Durham is inquiring into the origins of the Russia probe, ­including whether FBI officials acted properly in initiating it.

He interviewed former Australian diplomat Alexander Downer in London last October as part of the probe. The FBI started the Russia investigation in late July 2016 after Mr Downer reported to the US claims made to him by former Trump adviser George Papadopoulos that Russia had information that could be damaging to Mr Trump’s political opponent, Hillary Clinton. Mr Downer is ­believed to have told Mr Durham that he was not part of any conspiracy to undermine Mr Trump’s election campaign.

Mr Barr has been highly critical of the FBI’s behaviour in the Russia investigation, saying the President was the victim of an “utterly false Russian collusion narrative”.

The Durham report is expected before the November election.

Mr Trump has stepped up his attacks on Mr Obama and Mr Biden after the release of documents last week that he claims show Obama administration officials sought to frame Flynn in January 2017, shortly ­before Mr Trump assumed office.

The documents reveal that a number of Obama officials including Mr Biden asked for the identity of Flynn to be “unmasked” in US ­intelligence reports relating to Flynn’s communications with the then Russian ambassador to the US in late December 2016.

Flynn’s contacts with the Russian ambassador were then illegally leaked to the media. The FBI subsequently interviewed Flynn, who lied about the nature of his discussion with the Russians to both the FBI and vice-president Mike Pence.

Mr Trump sacked Flynn after less than a month in his job and the FBI charged Flynn with lying to the agency.

However, the Justice Department last week called for the charges against Flynn to be dropped on the ground that the FBI had no legal cause to interview him in the first place.

Cameron Stewart is also US contributor for Sky News Australia