Nancy Pelosi claims William Barr has 'gone off the rails' after attorney general claims US intelligence spied on Trump campaign

Accusation made as top law officer opens probe into how FBI started investigating Trump campaign

Nancy Pelosi has claimed William Barr has gone “off the rails”, after the attorney general alleged on Capitol Hill that US intelligence spied on members of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

In a further broadside amid efforts by Democrats to press Mr Barr to release a full copy of Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s alleged interference in election and possible collusion with Mr Trump, the House Speaker said Mr Barr’s behaviour was dismaying and disappointing.

“Let me just say how very dismaying and disappointing that the chief law enforcement officer of our country is going off the rails yesterday and today,” Ms Pelosi told reporters at the House Democrats’ annual issues retreat at a Virginia’s golf resort near Washington DC. “He is the attorney general of the United States of America, not the attorney general of Donald Trump.”

Mr Barr, who has said he will provide legislators a redacted copy of the special counsel’s 400-page report, this week said he had started a probe to discover how the FBI began investigating members of Mr Trump’s campaign.

On Wednesday, testifying before the Senate appropriations subcommittee, he stirred things further when he said he believed that “spying on a political campaign is a big deal”.

Asked to clarify his remarks, he said: “I think spying did occur. But the question is whether it was adequately predicated and I am not suggesting that it wasn’t adequately predicated.”

He added: “I am not suggesting those rules were violated, but I think it is important to look at that. And I am not talking about the FBI necessarily, but intelligence more broadly.”

Mr Trump has repeatedly claimed that his campaign was unfairly monitored during the 2016 presidential cycle, frequently voicing his frustration on Twitter. In March 2017, he wrote: “Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my “wires tapped” in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!”

It is known that the FBI sought and obtained a warrant from a special Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, often referred to as a FISA warrant, to monitor Carter Page, the Trump campaign advisor who was suspected of having ties to Russia. CNN said although Mr Page left Mr Trump’s campaign in September 2016, after articles highlighted his Russian ties, the following month the FBI applied for a warrant to watch him.

The warrant was approved and subsequently renewed three times. Mr Page gave testimony on Capitol Hill and sent a letter to Mr Mueller’s team requesting information about the warrant, but never faced any charges.

At the White House on Wednesday morning, Mr Trump claimed such surveillance amounted to “an attempted coup”.

“This was an attempted take-down of a president. And we beat them. We beat them. So the Mueller report, when they talk about obstruction we fight back. And do you know why we fight back,” he said.

“What I’m most interested in is getting started, hopefully the attorney general, he mentioned it yesterday.”

Speaking to reporters, Ms Pelosi, arguably the most powerful Democratic politician in the nation, doubled down on her party’s desire to see a copy of report of the special counsel.

“We want to see the Mueller report. There was an assault on the integrity of our election in our country, the basis for our democracy. There is no doubt about that. … It took place by Russia,” Ms Pelosi said, according to The Hill.

“You would think that every resource in our country would say we want to make sure this never happens again instead of engaging in this silliness. But, no, it isn’t silly; it’s too serious to be silly — this obstruction of getting the truth to the American people.”

Asked if she had confidence that Mr Barr will fairly conduct his investigation into how the FBI carried out their Russia probe, Ms Pelosi’s response contained just a single word: “No.”