Barr appoints U.S. attorney to investigate origins of Russia probe

Attorney General Bill Barr has appointed U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut John Durham to investigate the origins of the Russia probe and whether law enforcement's methods of collecting intelligence on the Trump campaign were legal, the New York Times first reported and the AP confirmed.

Why it matters: Barr had previously signaled that he wanted to review the FBI's surveillance of the Trump campaign, telling senators in a hearing last month that "spying did occur" — though he clarified that he did not mean to suggest that it was necessarily illegal. Durham has previously served as a special prosecutor investigating allegations of impropriety by intelligence officials, "including the F.B.I.’s ties to a crime boss in Boston and accusations of C.I.A. abuses of detainees," according to the Times.