© Reuters / Erin ScottAttorney General William Barr testifies before a Senate appropriations subcommittee
"I think spying did occur. Yes, I think spying did occur," Barr said during a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing, adding that he wasn't alleging that rules were broken.
Barr said those rules governed how and when law-enforcement agencies could place politicians and their campaigns under surveillance.
"I'm not suggesting that those rules were violated, but I think it's important to look at that," he said.
"I'm not talking about the FBI necessarily, but intelligence agencies more broadly."
He said the main question was whether the "spying" was done for a good reason.
"I need to explore that . . . I want to say that I am reviewing this, I haven't set up a team yet," he said, adding that he will ask colleagues to look at the information and advise him on how to proceed.
"I also want to make clear this is not launching an investigation of the FBI. Frankly, to the extent that there were any issues at the FBI, I do not view it as a problem that's endemic to the FBI. I think there was probably a failure among a group of leaders there in the upper echelon," Barr said.
Asked whether he would review why the FBI launched a counterintelligence probe to determine if Trump or his staffers were compromised by the Russians, Barr said only that "spying on a political campaign is a big deal."
President Trump earlier Wednesday called the probe into Russian election meddling "an attempted coup" that amounted to "treason" - and urged Barr to investigate the investigators.
"This was an attempted coup. This was an attempted take-down of a president, and we beat them. We beat them. We fight back, and you know why we fight back? Because I knew how illegal this whole thing was. It was a scam," the president said before leaving on a fund-raising trip to Texas.
"What I'm most interested in is getting started hopefully, the attorney general, he mentioned it yesterday. He is doing a great job getting started on going back to the origins of exactly where this all started because this was an illegal witch hunt, and everybody knew it," he said.
"They knew it, too, and they got caught, and what they did was treason. What they did was terrible. What they did was against our Constitution and everything we stand for. So, hopefully, that will happen," the president continued.
Special counsel Robert Mueller gave his nearly 400-page findings to Barr last month, and the attorney general released a four-page summary saying the report "does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him." The White House said it totally exonerated the president from collusion or obstruction allegations.
Democrats have said not so fast, and want to see the full report.
Barr told lawmakers Tuesday he would issue a redacted report within a week - but wouldn't hand over the entire version to Congress.
Comment: Naturally, Democrats are screaming 'conspiracy theory!'
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