Washington (CNN) The FBI should get sign-off from the attorney general and the director of the FBI before opening a counterintelligence investigation into a presidential campaign, Attorney General William Barr said on Monday.

The determination, which Barr said was agreed to by FBI Director Christopher Wray, is one of the most influential changes to be proposed in the wake of a Justice Department inspector general report that faulted the FBI for its handling of certain investigative steps as it probed potential ties between the campaign of President Donald Trump and Russia beginning in 2016.

It is also certain to renew criticism that Barr has undermined the Justice Department's independence and is injecting politics into a significant and sensitive decision-making process.

Barr has long been a skeptic of the FBI's work and reasoning in the Russia investigation, and has said for months that counterintelligence investigations should be given stricter oversight.

When Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz released his report last month, Barr publicly disagreed with some of its findings, disputing Horowitz's conclusion that the FBI had enough evidence to open a full investigation in the first place.

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