John Yoo: Barr will get to 'genesis' of spying allegations; says Assange 'perfect case for extradition'

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John Yoo: Barr will get to bottom of if spying on Trump campaign was justified

Former Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo said Friday he believes Attorney General William Barr will get to the bottom of why warrants were carried out against Donald Trump's campaign and determine whether it was done in good faith or because of a partisan bias.

Barr told congressional lawmakers this week that he is investigating both the "genesis" and the "conduct of intelligence activities" directed at Trump's 2016 campaign. He also raised eyebrows when he said he believed unauthorized "spying" did occur though he seemed to back off of the assertion later.

"I don't get the whole controversy over the word 'spying'," Yoo, now a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, told Fox News. "It is spying. If the government checked your emails or my emails without telling us it was listening to our phone calls we'd think of that as spying. The question is whether is was justified."

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Yoo also weighed in on the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and the charges brought against him by the United States.

"I can't think of a single individual who in the last 10, 15 years has done greater harm to American national security by himself," Yoo said. "He led to, I think, the capture and perhaps death to American agents abroad, to attacks on American soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq."

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Yoo added that he believes the Assange saga is a "perfect case for extradition."

Assange was arrested in London on Thursday, ending a 7-year stay in Ecuador's embassy. Following his arrest, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that Assange had been charged with conspiracy to commit computer intrusion for aiding Chelsea Manning, in the cracking of a password to a classified U.S. government computer in 2010.

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Assange had been staying up at the embassy in London since 2012, after Ecuador granted him asylum to avoid extradition to Sweden for sexual misconduct allegations.