(CNN) William Barr said in a 1998 interview that he was "disturbed" that Attorney General Janet Reno had not defended independent counsel Ken Starr from "spin control," "hatchet jobs" and "ad hominem attacks." Barr, then several years removed from his time as attorney general under President George H.W. All four men opposed the Independent Counsel Act but thought Starr was being unfairly maligned. Starr replaced independent counsel Robert Fiske, who had been appointed by Reno but needed to be reappointed by the three-judge panel under the then-newly reauthorized independent counsel law in 1994. Meese also said he didn't see a contradiction between their 1998 statement and Barr's handling of the Mueller report.

Source: CNN April 24, 2019 14:04 UTC