This Monday, U.S. prosecutors charged four Chinese military hackers over the 2017 cyberattack at Equifax. The hack caused a data breach that involved over 147 million credit reports.
In a press conference in the wake of the charges, Attorney General William Barr gave some opening remarks, then took one question from a reporter regarding recent comments made by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), where he said that Barr told him that the Justice Department “created a process that Rudy could give information and they would see if it’s verified.”
Responding to the reporter’s question, Barr said the DOJ “has the obligation to have an open door to anybody who wishes to provide us information that is relevant.”
“As I did say to Senator Graham, you have to be very careful with respect to any information coming from Ukraine,” Barr continued. “There are a lot of agendas in the Ukraine, there are a lot of cross currents, and you can’t take anything you receive from the Ukraine at face value. For that reason, we had established an intake process in the field so that any information coming in about Ukraine could be carefully scrutinized by the [Justice Department] and its intelligence community partners, so we can assess its provenance and credibility. That is true for all information that comes to the Department related to the Ukraine.”
But according to MSNBC justice and security analyst Matthew Miller, Barr’s answer didn’t quite add up.
“Very strange Barr performance at this Chinese hacking press conference just now,” Miller tweeted. “After opening remarks, takes one [question] on Lindsey Graham’s Ukraine claim, gives very general answer, then leaves before anyone can follow up, leaving rest of press conference to others.”