Washington (CNN) Attorney General William Barr shed new light on his role at the center of an investigation into the origins of the Russia probe in an interview Monday, telling Fox News that he spoke with foreign officials about the inquiry being run by US Attorney John Durham at their countries' request, and that the conversations served to establish a "channel" through which Durham could "obtain assistance."

Durham's investigation has received remarkable assists from the attorney general since Barr initiated it earlier this year over concerns that the 2016 presidential campaign of President Donald Trump had been improperly surveilled.

Over the summer, Barr discussed the investigation with British and Italian officials on visits to the countries, and the Trump administration has made overtures to the Australians as well about cooperation with US authorities looking into the matter.

"Some of the countries that John Durham thought might have some information or be helpful to his investigation wanted preliminarily to talk to me about the scope of the investigation, the nature of the investigation, and how I intended to handle confidential information," Barr told Fox News in an interview at a policing conference in Chicago.

"So I initially discussed these matters with those countries, then introduced them to John Durham and established a channel by which Mr. Durham can obtain assistance from those countries," he said.

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