Following the Justice Department’s decision to drop the charges against President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty of lying to the FBI, Attorney General William Barr defended the reversal in an interview with CBS News on Thursday. “[The FBI] did not have a basis for a counterintelligence investigation against Flynn at that stage,” Barr told CBS News, adding that a “crime cannot be established here.” Asked whether it was still true that Flynn lied during an interview with the FBI in 2016, Barr deflected: “Well, people sometimes plead to things that turn out not to be crimes.”

Trump had previously hinted that he was considering a pardon for Flynn. After denying he was doing Trump’s bidding, Barr was asked how history would remember this move. “History is written by the winners, so it largely depends on who is writing the history,” he said with a sly smile.