Attorney General William Barr has appointed federal prosecutor John Durham as special counsel to ensure his criminal investigation into the origins of the Russia probe would continue into the next administration.
Barr’s appointment of the powers and authority of a Justice Department special counsel to the Connecticut U.S. attorney was notified to Congress Tuesday in a letter that said the appointment occurred back on Oct. 19, ahead of last month’s presidential election.
“In advance of the presidential election, I decided to appoint Mr. Durham as a Special Counsel to provide him and his team with the assurance that they could complete their work, without regard to the outcome of the election,” Barr said in the letter.
The attorney general assigned Durham in May 2019 to investigate the FBI’s probe of allegations of links between the Trump campaign and Russia called Crossfire Hurricane, which led to a two-year Justice Department effort that produced a lengthy report by special counsel Robert Mueller.
More than 30 people, including those close to President Donald Trump, such as his former 2016 campaign chief Paul Manafort, friend Roger Store and former national security adviser Michael Flynn, have been indicted as part of Mueller’s investigation.
Since Barr tapped Durham in 2019 to launch the investigation into whether federal agencies acted within the law during the initial stages of the Russian probe, only one indictment has been produced.
In August, former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith pleaded guilty to altering an email to support surveillance of Trump’s former campaign aide, Carter Page, charges for which he is to be sentenced for on Dec. 10.
Barr said in an order of Durham’s appointment attached to the letter to Congress that he has determined following discussion with the attorney that public interest and “the extraordinary circumstances relating to these matters” warrant the investigation to continue.
“Although I had expected Mr. Durham to complete his work by the summer of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as additional information he uncovered, prevented him from doing so,” Barr said in the letter, without detailing what the additional information consisted of.
Barr said he did not announce Durham’s appointment in October due to worries it would interfere in the election.
The order gives few specifics on the investigation, stating Durham is authorized to probe “whether any federal official, employee or any other person or entity violated the law in connection with the intelligence, counter-intelligence or law-enforcement activities directed at the 2016 presidential campaigns, individuals associated with those campaigns and individuals associated with the administration of President Donald J. Trump, including but not limited to Crossfire Hurricane and the investigation of special counsel Robert S. Mueller, III.”
Trump has vehemently condemned the Mueller report and investigation and despite its nearly three dozen indictments and has frequently called it a “witch hunt” and accused the Obama administration of spying on his campaign.
The president has also used his powers to pardon Stone in July and Flynn last week.
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So, Durham has a lifetime job to do the same thing he’s done all along. NOTHING!!! And he does it on our payroll.
Millions for defense, not a cent more for tribute ,,,,or delay. J. Edgar Hoover would have had the culprits nailed to the wall in 3 months. Naming a Special Council is just translation for “Delay it until the public forgets” or “Hey, lets create a commission to solve the problem,,,stacked with enemy politicos of the opposite party”. Once the corrupt power hungry Dems take over the evidence will be bleached and laundered white as snow, or hammered into dust. Forget the Russian nonsense, and move on to the Biden Chinese Hunter Ukraine money laundering where the real impeaching corruption gold lies.
AND even with his nomination as a ‘special council, IF BIDEN GETS inaugurated, you can BET THAT council’s investigation WILL GO INTO ThE trash heap, where all other leftist scandals go to die.
Hey Barr, why wasn’t Durham appointed Special Counsel, when he was first appointed to investigate this coup against Trump?????? Oh, I forgot, we cannot offend any criminals in the deep state.
BARR is just as much a traitor as every commucrat doing this steal, has been.. I say HANG THE BLOODY LOT of them.
AND their voters too!
Does ANYONE believe a single person will go to jail for this coup attempt? So, why are we wasting millions of dollars on an investigation to nowhere?
I certainly don’t.. IN FACT i feel if anyone gets punished, it will be the ONES WHO BLEW the whistle on the fraud…
It seems that barr is just trying to run out the clock, this is part of the job, if not the whole job, Durham was supposed to be doing for how many years now. I have lost whatever little confidence I had to start with, he very well may get the axe next. How anyone can say there is not sufficient evidence to overturn at least a couple of states. Jr High math will tell you, the numbers taken from PA records someone MUST EXPLAIN how you can get back more ballots than you sent out by 700,000, that is not a rounding error.
It’s obvious, the anti American traitors will force the law abiding citizens into having trials in the streets across this nation!!
ensure his criminal investigation into the origins of the Russia probe would continue into the next administration.
Right, we’re all sure the criminal investigation will continue into the next administration. And of course we’re also sure that like the Klinton investigations nothing will come of it.
Adding insult to injury, not only are we being lied to, we have to pay for this charade as well.
AND then get told ‘ITS for our own good”.