The Washington Examiner: "Democrats and some in the media expressed shock and outrage when Attorney General William Barr said Wednesday that 'spying did occur' on the Trump campaign during the 2016 election."
"The baffling thing was why they were baffled. Barr's statement was accurate and supported by publicly known facts."
"That is entirely accurate. It is a fact that in October 2016 the FBI wiretapped Carter Page, who had earlier been a short-term foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign. The bureau's application to a secret court for that wiretapping is public. It is heavily redacted but is clearly focused on Page and 'the Russian government's attempt to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election.' Page was wiretapped because of his connection with the Trump campaign."
"So there is simply no doubt that the FBI wiretapped a Trump campaign figure. Is a wiretap 'spying'? It is hard to imagine a practice, whether approved by a court or not, more associated with spying."
"That alone is enough to back up Barr's remark. But it is also known that the FBI engaged at least one informant, a professor named Stefan Halper, to penetrate the Trump campaign."