1/ Attorney General William Barr assembled a team to examine the origins of the counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign’s possible ties to Russia. Barr is pursuing allegations by Republican lawmakers of anti-Trump bias at the Justice Department and FBI. Robert Mueller took over the counterintelligence investigation when he was appointed special counsel. Separately, the Justice Department’s inspector general is reviewing whether the FBI and federal prosecutors abused their authority when obtaining FISA warrants to surveil Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. (Bloomberg / Wall Street Journal)

2/ Barr told Congress that the government was “spying� on Trump’s campaign during the 2016 election, but provided no evidence. During a hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee, Barr said that while he’s not launching an investigation of the FBI or suggesting there is an “endemic� problem at the FBI, he does “think there was a failure among a group of leaders at the upper echelons.� Barr went on to say that he wanted to understand if there was “unauthorized surveillance� of political figures and whether law enforcement officials had proper legal justification for the “genesis� of the counterintelligence investigation. (New York Times / Washington Post / Politico / NBC News / CNN / Bloomberg / Axios)

3/ Trump claimed the Russia investigation was “an attempted coup� to remove him from office. Trump accused Mueller’s probe of being “started illegally� and that “every single thing about it� was “crooked.� Trump went on to say that “as far as I’m concerned, I don’t care about the Mueller report,� claiming that “I’ve been totally exonerated.� (NBC News / Washington Post / Politico)

4/ The FBI discussed the possibility that Trump fired FBI Director James Comey “at the behest of� the Russian government in May 2017. James Baker, a former top lawyer of the FBI, testified to the House Oversight and Judiciary committees in October 2018 about the discussions he had with Andrew McCabe, FBI counterintelligence official Bill Priestap, and national security official Carl Ghattas about the possibility that Trump was “following directions� and “executing [the] will� of the Russian Government. (Politico)

5/ Trump repeated his refusal to relea...