The FBI Needs a Grand Jury
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By William McGurn,
Only the threat of indictment will get Bill Barr to the truth—and reform the bureau.
If the Federal Bureau of Investigation is to recover its lost reputation, the first item on Attorney General William Barr’s agenda must be to make good on something that set off a frenzy when he proposed it last week: an honest accounting of the FBI’s spying on the presidential campaign of Donald Trump. To do it, Mr. Barr would be well advised to use a grand jury, the same tool used by special counsel Robert Mueller in his investigation.
Right now the American people don’t even know when the FBI investigation into the Trump campaign really started. Officially it began July 31, 2016, set off by a tip from Australia’s ambassador to the United Kingdom, Alexander Downer, that Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos had told him Russia had damaging information on Hillary Clinton. But the accumulating evidence—confidential informants were reportedly reaching out to Trump campaign officials well before July 31—casts doubt on the party line.
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