Since late 2021, two major indictments have been handed down one for a Russian operative who is said to be the source of the Steele Dossier and Attorney Michael Sussman. Along with investigating Connolly, Durhams FBI team gathered evidence regarding a retired agent, H. Paul Rico. More than $670,000 went toward personnel costs, more than $280,000 went toward travel and more than $797,000 went toward IT and litigative support, according to the report. In staff meetings with the attorney general, no one ever mentioned the political ramifications of any case. [6] He is known for his role as special prosecutor in the 2005 destruction of interrogation tapes created by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), during which he decided not to file any criminal charges related to the destruction of tapes of torture at a CIA facility.[3]. An official website of the United States government. 950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Durhams career spans nearly fifty years, and it is certain he earned pensions and other compensation as a federal prosecutor as well. From 1989 to 1994, he served as Chief of the Office's Criminal Division. Yet, far from alerting the FISC judges that there was significant reason to disbelieve the information from Steele about Trump who was by then the incumbent president the FBI continued to rely on that suspect information in sworn surveillance applications in April and June 2017, based on which the FISC granted additional spying warrants. In fact, reports from its investigation claim that in 2008, when he was working at the Brookings Institution (a center-left Washington think tank), Danchenko offered to pay two of his fellow researchers for classified information if they got jobs in the incoming Obama administration. On frontier of new gold rush, quest for coveted EV metals yields misery, first asked him to review the FBI investigation, alleged in an indictment that Michael Sussmann, ran up a tab of just under $32 million over two years. [20] He remains Special Counsel as of January 2023. Whether or not Hunter Biden, who has denied any wrongdoing, is ultimately charged, Trumps latest insertion of himself into the investigation is unlikely to have any effect on the matter. Law And Order. The Department of Justice would ordinarily never bring such a baseless case.". Updated 10/12/2022 09:11 PM EDT. The FBI ultimately could not find anything nefarious about the connections. Sussmann has committed no crime, defense attorneys Sean Berkowitz and Michael Bosworth said in the statement. The FBI and congressional investigators both examined the pings between the computer systems and determined they were innocuous. Rico died in 2004 before the case went to trial. Durham volunteered on the Crow Indian Reservation in Montana. 2021 4:58 PM ET. A source familiar with Durhams probe say that the attorney handles the investigation very professionally, pointing to the fact that,, President Trump compared the case to Watergate, saying the allegations against Hillary Clintons campaign and various individuals, including a lawyer, Within the last two months, John Durhams investigation into the Steele dossier, the FISA warrants issued as a result of, Information on Hunter Bidens wealth varies. Durhams quiet demeanor lends little public knowledge of his personal life. Durham, along with fifty-six others nominated to similar positions by President Trump, was a part of the shake-up at the request of Joe Biden. The precise scope of Durhams mandate has never been clear. By ERIC TUCKER August 13, 2021. In November, Durham alleged in an indictment that Igor Danchenko, an analyst who was a key source for a 2016 dossier of allegations about Trump, had lied to the FBI about where and how he got information. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. A spokesperson for Garland did not immediately respond to a request for comment on his role in the case. It led to unprecedented letters signed by former department officials calling for the resignation of former Attorney General William Barr. He said after Sussmann dropped off the material, he quickly passed it to Bill Priestap, the head of the FBIs Counterintelligence Division at the time. TTY/ASCII/TDD: 800-877-8339. Tape Case", "U.S. Attorney For Connecticut John Durham Resigns", "Scrutiny of Russia Investigation Is Said to Be a Review, Not a Criminal Inquiry", "AP source: Barr launches new look at origins of Russia probe", "Barr appoints special counsel in Russia probe investigation", "Durham remains special counsel overseeing Trump-Russia probe", "John H. Durham Sworn in as United States Attorney", "John H. Durham: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know", "President Trump Nominates John Durham To Be U.S. Attorney", "Barr appoints John Durham as special counsel investigating 2016 presidential campaign investigators | CNN Politics", "Barr Makes Durham a Special Counsel in a Bid to Entrench Scrutiny of the Russia Inquiry", "Justice Dept. [22][23][24] On November 8, 2010, Durham closed the investigation without recommending any criminal charges be filed. John Durham is 71 years old. Danchenko was charged with five felony counts of making false statements to the FBI. Last year, Barr converted Durhams probe into a special counsel investigation under Justice Department regulations. That was detailed in yet another Durham court filing last week, in the Virginia federal court where Danchenko is soon scheduled to be tried. On October 19, 2020, John Durham was appointed by Attorney General William Barr to serve as the Special Counsel by the order below. This 2018 portrait released by the U.S. Department of Justice shows Connecticut's U.S. Attorney John Durham. "At its core, the Special Counsel is bringing a false statement charge based on an oral statement allegedly made five years ago to a single witness that is unrecorded and unobserved by anyone else. And under questioning from Democratic staff, Baker added that he wouldnt have viewed the information differently had he been aware of Sussmanns link to the campaign. Clinesmithwas sentenced in January to probation. Durham alleged at the two trials that the FBI had been deceived by the defendants but did not allege the FBI had acted improperly. Phone: 202-514-2000
The special prosecutor probing the origins of the federal investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia, John Durham, has charged Washington . ", "The Special Counsel appears to be using this indictment to advance a conspiracy theory he has chosen not to actually charge," they said in a statement. His grand jury wrapped up work last week, apparently with no new indictments on the horizon. John Durham Probe Charges Washington Lawyer With Lying To FBI A cybersecurity lawyer who worked at a law firm tied to the Democratic Party is the second person charged in John . Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. The development is a potential sign that Durham may be mulling additional . All rights reserved. Sussmann has pleaded not guilty, and his legal team has called the allegations against him baseless noting that Durham seems to be building a case around a single statement allegedly made five years ago to a single witness that is unrecorded and unobserved by anyone else.. Durham boasts over four decades in the legal field, and Time magazine has noted his nonpartisan professionalism. Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday declined to say whether special counsel John Durham is continuing his investigation into the FBI's probe of the Clinton Foundation. The mysterious computer communications became the subject of several news articles in the fall of 2016. Sussman was indicted on charges of providing false statements to the FBI, but, Sussmans name is back in the headlines again as a Durham court filing alleges that Sussman took manipulated traffic supposedly from Trump Tower and later the White House to the FBI inferring there was a connection between the Trump Organization and Russian government. hide caption. It is one of the great dirty tricks in modern political history: The 2016 Democratic presidential campaign colluded with the incumbent Democratic administrations law enforcement and intelligence apparatus to portray their partisan opposition, Donald Trump, as a Kremlin mole, then made the smear stick to the point of forcing Trump to govern for over two years under the cloud of a special-counsel investigation. Could be. Some fear his work for Barr could tarnish it. Durham has been praised for his tenacity and professionalism throughout this particular investigation, with few, if any, leaks of information to the media. Annie izzy Cornell (@izzy_annie) July 20, 2021. Clinesmith, who pleaded guilty to doctoring an email that was used to get surveillance on a former Trump campaign adviser, was sentenced to one year of probation. Yet these prosecutions are secondary to the vital story: What role did the FBI, whether by misfeasance or malfeasance, play in the Clinton campaigns project to paint Trump as a clandestine agent of the Kremlin? For example, the much-derided investigation by special counsel John Durham into the origins of the FBIs probe into Trumps connections with Russia has been allowed to continue. He was preceded in death by his . Danchenko turns out to have been Steeles principal source for this fever dream. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. The latest report includes some expenses from that prior time frame, which came in higher than had been estimated. He also billed the Clinton campaign for meetings with journalists about the same materials. Durham was tapped in 2019 by then-Attorney General William Barr to look into the genesis of the FBI's investigation into connections between the Trump campaign and Russia. Durham has proven time and again to be effective in bringing convictions on those associated with the New England Mafia. Meadows referral creates new legal, political challenges for AG Garland. Barr later elevated Durham to special counsel status in October 2020. If youre keeping score, that would be throughout (a) most of the FISC-authorized surveillance; (b) the Mueller investigation, which somehow failed to detect or at least to report that Danchenko misled the bureau; and (c) Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitzs investigations of the FBIs misconduct in the Trump investigation in the reports of which there is no indication that Horowitz was told Danchenko was on the bureau payroll and available to be interviewed. Yet, many legal experts as well as political pundits describe him as possessing an apolitical reputation. By April 2019, he had been assigned to investigate the origins of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections, and in October 2020 he was appointed special counsel for the Department of Justice on that matter. ) or https:// means youve safely connected to the .gov website. [25] Durham's final report remains secret but was the subject of an unsuccessful lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act filed by The New York Times reporter Charlie Savage. The prosecutor related that Danchenko was the subject of an FBI counterintelligence from 2009 to 2011.. Have a question about Government Services? There is no indication anything came of this, but upon being tipped off, the bureau did some digging and learned that Danchenko had been in contact with people it was investigating as possible Russian intelligence officers. But there is a very real and compelling reason behind why Special Counsel John Durham has virtually disappeared in Washington D.C. as he's now spent almost three years investigating some of the most powerful and influential people in America. seeks resignations of Trump-era US attorneys", "What Is a Special Counsel and What Can They Do? Though Durham initially focused on whether law enforcement and intelligence agencies acted inappropriately as they investigated the Trump campaign, the probe in recent months has seemed to zero in on whether people outside of government misled the FBI in an effort to keep attention on exaggerated claims of Trump ties with Russia. 3 min read Any report compiled by special counsel John Durham "may. Sussman billed these meetings to the Clinton campaign, according to the indictment. Durham has been rather quiet but professional regarding his current case. Rather, it meant that there was a well-established shared concern that no appearance of or actual political interference was to take place. When the bureau finally got around to questioning Danchenko because it hadnt been able to corroborate Steeles claims despite relying on them in court it learned that Steele appeared to have exaggerated and possibly fabricated rumors and innuendo about Trump that Danchenko was said to have passed along. He blew the whistle on Trumps Truth Social. Danchenko, a Russian analyst who contributed to a dossier of Democratic-funded research into ties between Russia and Donald Trump, was arrested Thursday on charges of lying to the FBI about his sources of information, among them an associate of Hillary Clinton. I mean, so I was uncomfortable with being in the position of having too much factual information conveyed to me, because Im not an agent, Baker said. [3][11] After graduation, he was a VISTA volunteer for two years (19751977) on the Crow Indian Reservation in Montana. But it is President Bidens decision to leave in place the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney overseeing the investigation into his son that best exemplifies his administrations effort to restore public confidence that investigations will not be politically weaponized. Some former intelligence community officials have said those sorts of judgments were better reviewed by inspectors general of the intelligence agencies and not by a federal prosecutor. Durham was the U.S. attorney in Connecticut when then-Attorney General William P. Barr first asked him to review the FBI investigation; at that time, he was not a special counsel who was required to publicly report investigative expenses. After the indictment was handed up Thursday, Sussmann resigned from Perkins Coie in order to focus on his legal defense, a spokesperson for the firm said in a statement. His exact work in this capacity is unknown. That includes roughly more than $2.3 million between April 1 and Sept. 30. Shortly after the indictment was announced, the law firm where he was a partner, Perkins Coie, said it had accepted Sussmanns resignation. In 2019, however, CNN said his apolitical reputation was on the line once then United States Attorney William Barr tapped Durham to head an investigation into the Trump-Russian collusion probe. Michael Sussmann appears in federal court on September 17, 2021. [34] By September 2022 the costs of his investigation has climbed to $6.5 million since assuming the role of special counsel. [14] Durham's task force also gathered evidence against retired FBI agent H. Paul Rico, who was indicted in Oklahoma on state charges that he helped Bulger and Flemmi kill a Tulsa businessman in 1981. [21][20], Amid allegations that FBI informants James "Whitey" Bulger and Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi had corrupted their handlers, US Attorney General Janet Reno named Durham special prosecutor in 1999. The administrations effort to recover the Justice Departments integrity is not limited to the Hunter Biden case. Durham would not recommend any criminal charges be filed. [26], In August 2009, Attorney General Eric Holder appointed Durham to lead the Justice Department's investigation of the legality of CIA's use of so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques" in the torture of detainees.
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