Attorney General Bill Barr is making it clear that he doesn’t agree with the Inspector General’s report, and instead believes Donald Trump’s lies, spin, and conspiracy theories. Barr went on NBC News (watch above) to share his thoughts with Pete Williams last night. In the Washington Post, opinion writer Jennifer Rubin wrote, “William P. Barr’s Tuesday interview with NBC News was certainly the most dishonest, frightful and deplorable given by an attorney general in modern times.”

NBC News writes:

In an exclusive interview with NBC News, Barr essentially dismissed the findings of the Justice Department’s inspector general that there was no evidence of political bias in the launching of the Russia probe, saying that his hand-picked prosecutor, John Durham, will have the last word on the matter.

“I think our nation was turned on its head for three years based on a completely bogus narrative that was largely fanned and hyped by a completely irresponsible press,” Barr said. “I think there were gross abuses …and inexplicable behavior that is intolerable in the FBI.”

“I think that leaves open the possibility that there was bad faith.”

Barr also says the Trump campaign was “clearly spied upon.” Vox’s Zack Beauchamp writes:

“The most unbelievable line came when Barr attempted to cast the FBI’s surveillance of Trump campaign staff in 2016 as “the greatest danger to our free system” — because in his mind, that constituted the government abusing its powers to influence an election. Yes, really:

‘From a civil liberties standpoint, the greatest danger to our free system is that the incumbent government used the apparatus of the state, principally the law enforcement agencies and the intelligence agencies, both to spy on political opponents, but also to use them in a way that could affect the outcome of the election.'”

John Heilemann, a national affairs analyst for MSNBC reacted to the interview saying:

“The attorney general, from the moment he walked into this job, has behaved as a ruthless, relentless political hack and a thug… He made a travesty of the Mueller report and he continues to lie on Donald Trump’s behalf at every opportunity.”