wall street journal, barr appeared more certain. he said government power was used to spy on american citizens. of course spy is a loaded term with nefarious connotations. but according to the fbi counter intelligence would be the proper term focussed on russian attempts to influence the election and infiltrate the trump campaign. george papadopoulos had relayed to a russian diplomat to help the campaign by releasing thousands of hacked democratic e-mails, which was alarming to the fbi and should be to everyone because they were already aware of the russian efforts to influence the election. according to reporting, they sent an undercover investigator to find out what pop dhe knew. he throws out the word spy and rolls on, which he s done now a few times since assuming the office of attorney general.