October 29th 2019

By Bill Berkowitz 

Several months ago, Attorney General William Barr, possessed by Donald Trump’s yearning for deep state conspiracies, appointed U.S. Attorney John Durham to investigate whether “intelligence collection activities by the U.S. government related to the Trump 2016 presidential campaign were ‘lawful and appropriate,’” Fox News’ Brook Singman reported. Last week, The New York Times reported that “Justice Department officials have shifted an administrative review of the Russia investigation closely overseen by Attorney General William P. Barr to a criminal inquiry.” Durham, the prosecutor running it, now has “the power to subpoena for witness testimony and documents, to convene a grand jury and to file criminal charges.”

The conservative Washington Examiner recently claimed that the CIA is “rattled” by the inquiry. And, as expected, Fox News is downright giddy over the possible outcome of Durham’s investigation. In a story headlined “Expansive Durham probe could give Trump ammo amid impeachment fight,” Fox’s Singman claimed that Durham’s investigation “is quietly but steadily expanding under the shadow of the high-profile House impeachment inquiry against President Trump—and could represent something of a wild card in the president’s attempts to fight back.” 

If Durham plays Barr’s cards right, he may go down in the annals of conservatism as a highly acclaimed figure.

“If the rumors are true that [Inspector General] Horowitz’s report and findings in Durham’s review will blast the conduct of the FBI’s Russia investigation, it will give Trump a lot of ammo to support his argument that he was unjustly targeted then and is being unjustly targeted now,” a House GOP source told Fox News. “It will justify Trump’s warnings about the Deep State acting to hobble his presidency.”

Meanwhile, the Washington Examiner’s Daniel Chaitin reported that “The Justice Department's review of the origins of the Russia investigation created ‘unease’ at the CIA, according to a reporter who has followed its progress. Uncertainty over what investigators are seeking and whether the inquiry has become a criminal investigation has prompted some CIA analysts who played a role in the intelligence assessment of Russia's activities during the 2016 campaign to hire lawyers.”

"There’s a lot of unease at the CIA and disquiet about the notion of federal prosecutors going over and rooting in their files," Ken Dilanian said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe. "Not because they think they did anything wrong, but because these are sources and methods — some of the most highly classified documents and secrets in our government. And they are kept to a small set of people for a reason. It’s a need-to-know situation. And they’re questioning what is the need for John Durham and his prosecutors to go over and talk to them about that in the absence of any allegation of wrongdoing?"

So, who is John Durham and why is the Trump administration and Barr depending on him to muddy the impeachment waters, and give Trump a get-out-of-jail-free card?

According to The New York Times, Durham “is a widely respected and veteran prosecutor who has investigated C.I.A. torture and broken up Mafia rings,” a resume that “could help insulate the attorney general from accusations that he is doing the president’s bidding and putting politics above justice.”

The New York Times reported that “Barr is closely managing the Durham investigation, even traveling to Italy to seek help from officials there to run down an unfounded conspiracy that is at the heart of conservatives’ attacks on the Russia investigation — that the Italian government helped set up the Trump campaign adviser who was told in 2016 that the Russians had damaging information that could hurt Clinton’s campaign.

“But Italy’s intelligence services told Mr. Barr that they played no such role in the events leading to the Russia investigation, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte of Italy said in a news conference on Wednesday. Mr. Barr has also contacted government officials in Britain and Australia about their roles in the early stages of the Russia investigation.”

Durham has enlisted “a trusted aide, Nora R. Dannehy, and a pair of retired F.B.I. agents. Other prosecutors are also assisting, people familiar with the investigation said. In interviewing more than two dozen former and current F.B.I. and intelligence officials, Mr. Durham’s investigators have asked about any anti-Trump bias among officials who worked on the Russia investigation and about one aspect of the investigation that was at the heart of  highly contentious allegations that they abused their powers: the secret application seeking a court order for a wiretap on Mr. [Carter] Page.”

“William Barr’s investigation should make Democrats nervous,” reads a recent Washington Post headline. Vox is reporting that Justice Department officials told NBC News that Durham had found something “significant,” but did not specify what. 

Vox’s Jen Kirby pointed out that “The expansion of the Justice Department review raises concerns that Barr is injecting politics into this inquiry and using the full weight of law enforcement to pursue right-wing talking points and discredit the special counsel’s probe — just as Trump is facing the threat of impeachment for pressuring Ukraine, including over the conspiracy theory that Ukraine, not Russia, hacked the Democratic National Committee in 2016.”

“Investigate the investigators,” Trump has consistently demand. As Kirby noted, “Trump has long wanted to diminish the credibility of the Russia ‘witch hunt.’” Now, with Barr heading the Justice Department, he is getting what he’s asked for.