Attorney General William Barr: 'I don't think there are two justice systems'
Attorney General William Barr, in an exclusive interview on CNN, broadly defended the actions of police, saying shootings of Black Americans often weren't racially motivated and weren't as common as public demonstrations have made them seem.
Posted — Updated"I don't think there are two justice systems," Barr said on CNN's "The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer." "I think the narrative that the police are in some epidemic of shooting unarmed black men is simply a false narrative and also the narrative that's based on race."
In a wide-ranging interview, Barr also said that neither former President Barack Obama nor former Vice President Joe Biden were under investigation.
Asked whether it was appropriate for President Donald Trump to be asking the attorney general to launch criminal investigation against his political opponents, Barr replied, "I didn't take that as launching a criminal investigation. We're reviewing the Russiagate thing, and I think he's interested in the results of it."
Barr has been near the center of a political storm around civil unrest, especially in Wisconsin and Oregon, in recent weeks where civil rights protests over police killings of Black Americans have at times turned violent.
It's also nearly 60 days until the 2020 election, and Trump has publicly and repeatedly leaned on his attorney general, one of his most trusted Cabinet members, to prosecute former officials he dislikes and give leniency toward his allies. Barr has for months touted an investigation he commissioned to re-examine investigators' work in the early days of the Russia probe, an effort Barr's critics have alleged is driven by a political attempt to help the President during his reelection bid.
This story is breaking and will be updated.
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