Attorney General William Barr (Photo by Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images)

(CNSNews.com) - President Donald Trump repeatedly called FBI investigation into him and his campaign the "Russia hoax." This week, Attorney General William Barr called it "one of the greatest travesties in American history."

"I think the president has every right to be frustrated because I think what happened to him was one of the greatest travesties in American history," Barr said in an interview with Fox News's Laura Ingraham.

"Without any basis, they started this investigation of his campaign, and even more concerning, actually, is what happened after the campaign, a whole pattern of events while he was president...to sabotage the presidency...or at least had the effect of sabotaging the presidency."

John Durham, the U.S. attorney in Connecticut, is now investigating the origins of the FBI's "Russia collusion" probe into the Trump campaign and later, into Trump's alleged obstruction of justice.

But Barr said Durham's primary focus isn't to produce a report:

He is looking to bring to justice people who were engaged in abuses, if he can show that they were criminal violations, and that's what the focus is on.



And, as you know, being a lawyer yourself, building these cases, especially the sprawling case we have between us that went on for two or three years here, it takes some time. It takes some time to build the case so he's diligently pursuing it. My own view is that the evidence shows that we are not dealing with just mistakes or sloppiness, there's something far more troubling here, and we're going to get to the bottom of it. And if people broke the law, and we can establish that with the evidence, they will be prosecuted.

Barr told Ingraham that he believes "safeguards" can be added to the FISA surveillance system "that will enable us to go forward with this important tool."

"You know, I think it's possible to put in a regime that will make it very hard either to willfully circumvent FISA or to do so sloppily without due regard for the rights of the American person involved. And also to make it very clear that any misconduct will be discovered and discovered fairly promptly," Barr said.

"I think it's very sad and the people who abused FISA have a lot to answer for. Because this was an important tool to protect the American people. They abused it, they undercut public confidence in FISA, but also in the FBI as an institution. And we have to rebuild that."