Barr said he didn’t recall getting briefed on the moves.

Barr’s comments came after The New York Times reported that in 2017 and 2018, the Justice Department seized the records of at least 12 people connected to the House Intelligence Committee, including its current chair. Barr became attorney general in 2019.

Barr also said that while he was attorney general, he was “not aware of any congressman’s records being sought in a leak case.”

Barr said he installed Osmar Benvenuto in DOJ’s National Security Division in February 2020 to try to revive the leak investigations after Craig Carpenito, the U.S. attorney for New Jersey, recommended him to Barr as “a very experienced prosecutor [who] could quickly sort out which of any of these cases merited further investigative steps and what could be done to bring them to resolution.”

“I was getting criticized by Cabinet members and members of the Intelligence Community about the department not having done anything on these leak cases, so I wanted to make sure they were being pursued,” Barr said.

When the subpoenas reportedly went out, Rod Rosenstein was the deputy attorney general. John Demers became the head of DOJ’s National Security Division, which handles leak probes, in February of 2018. Rosenstein has since left the department for private practice; Demers is still heading the National Security Division.

Mary McCord, a career attorney, headed the National Security Division before Demers’ Senate confirmation.

“All I can say is that any investigation involving an elected official would be considered a sensitive matter that would need high-level approval at the department,” she told POLITICO when reached for comment.

An unlikely pro-Trump ally came to House Democrats' defense on Friday, as Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) — himself facing scrutiny from federal prosecutors in a sex trafficking probe — responded that "DOJ has a very nasty tendency to target its critics, Republican and Democrat."

Courtesy Politico

I know nothing, I know nothing. Please Colonel Hogan, I know nothing.