In an exclusive interview back in April, President Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity that Attorney General Bill Barr will definitely be following through on one of the president’s campaign promises and reviewing allegations made against his former opponent, Hillary Clinton, and her presidential campaign.
The president went on to say that AG Barr will be specifically looking into allegations about information pertaining to the then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort from Ukrainian agents.
“I think it’s incredible when you hear it,” Trump said, in relation to new reports that FBI agents were recruiting White House insiders to spy on the president. “It sounds like big stuff … I’m not surprised” He went on.
According to Hannity, Ukrainian officials have offered to share information with the United States about their country colluding to interfere in the 2016 presidential election, but on behalf of Clinton, not Trump.
When asked by the host if he believed that America “needed to see that information,” Trump replied that he thinks “we do, and frankly we have a great new attorney general who’s done a great job in a short period of time and he is very smart and very tough, and I’d certainly defer to him, but I would imagine [Barr] would want to see this.”
The president went on to say that this is somewhat fresh information still, so he cannot speak for Barr, but said:
“I would certainly defer to the attorney general, and we’ll see what he says about it. He calls ’em straight.
Earlier in the conversation, the president said that he had spoken to the newly elected president of Ukraine, and appeared to be building a positive relationship with the new leader:
“I just spoke to the new president a little while ago,” Trump said, indicating Ukraine’s new leader. “and congratulated him on an incredible race, incredible run, and a big surprise victory.”
The DailyMail outlined the newly reported information concerning possible interference on the part of Ukraine in the 2016 election:
“Back in March, Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Yurii Lutsenko said the country was investigating the so-called ‘black ledger’ files that led to Manafort’s abrupt departure from the Trump campaign.
“An unearthed audio recording had previously implicated a senior Ukrainian anti-corruption in leaking Manafort’s financial information and his ties to Russia in order to benefit Clinton’s campaign.
“Ukrainian officials said this month they have gathered a heap of evidence of collusion with Democrats and they are trying to share the information with the US Justice Department.
“A court in Ukraine ruled recently that the Manafort leak amounted to illegal interference in the 2016 election.
“Back in 2017, a report by Politico found that Ukrainian officials had sought to undermine the Trump campaign by questioning his fitness for office.
“They were also said to have worked to secure Clinton’s victory by conducting research on her behalf and going after Manafort for his ties to Russia.”
