Attorney General William Barr has told associates he believes the inspector general examined too narrow a set of questions to be able to draw any sweeping conclusions, people familiar with the matter said.

Specifically, Mr. Barr doesn’t believe the inspector general is in a position to draw a conclusion about whether the FBI was justified in opening an investigation into ties between several Trump associates and Russia by looking only at the FBI’s decisions. He has appointed Connecticut’s U.S. attorney, John Durham, to conduct a broader investigation, including into the actions of the nation’s intelligence agencies, that seeks to answer that question.

Mr. Barr has also openly lamented that the inspector general was limited in the kind of information he was able to obtain—a prosecutor for example, can use subpoenas if there is evidence of a crime while the inspector general relies mostly on voluntary cooperation.