Merrick Garland Makes Massive Announcement On John Durham Investigation

Merrick Garland Makes Massive Announcement On John Durham Investigation
Carmine Sabia, March 29, 2023

It has been a long time since Special Prosecutor John Durham started his investigation into the origins of the investigation into former President Donald Trump and the rumors of his campaign colluding with Russia, but it may be near its end.

Attorney General Merrick Garland has hinted that he expects Durham’s investigation to be done in the near future, The Daily Wire reported.

“The rare update on Durham’s inquiry into potential misconduct in the Trump-Russia probe came during testimony before a Senate committee. Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) asked Garland about why former Hillary Clinton campaign attorney Michael Sussmann, who was found not guilty of lying to the FBI in a blow to Durham’s investigation, apparently had a badge to get into the bureau’s headquarters in the run-up to the 2016 election,” The Daily Wire said.

“On the particular question about Sussman, I think we’re going to have to wait until Mr. Durham finishes his report, which should be relatively soon,” the attorney general said.

“I certainly don’t in any way want to interfere with him,” he said. “And he’s the one who would know the answer to that. On the more general question, I can certainly ask my team to look into how lawyers have special badges.”

Just The News founder John Solomon believes that Special Counsel John Durham is preparing to go after the FBI. Solomon spoke about the special counsel’s investigation into the Trump-Russia witch hunt and what Durham’s next move might be.

Solomon explained that he believes Durham is dealing with “two buckets.”

In one “bucket,” there are the last two indictments against officials who were connected to Hillary Clinton and their plan to feed the FBI false information about Trump-Russia conspiracies. He said the other “bucket” focuses on the FBI and whether agents knowingly mislead the FISA court to obtain warrants to spy on members of Trump’s 2016 campaign.

“But Durham developed really significant evidence that red flags, the stop-now warning signs go all the way back to August when Bruce Orr, in 2016 came to the FBI and said Christopher Steele is dumping a dossier. He hates Trump. He’s hired by Hillary Clinton and most of his information is raw and uncorroborated,” he said.

Democrats, however, are making moves of their own.

An Obama-era spokesman for the Department of Justice believes that Special Counsel John Durham should not get the final say over his own report. Matthew Miller — who served as the director of the Department of Justice’s public affairs office between 2009 and 2011 — said that Attorney General Merrick Garland, or another high-ranking official within the department, should review the report before it is shared with Americans.

“His cases are over. I think it’s clear that he’s not going to bring any more charges in this investigation, but one of the requirements for special counsels under the regulations is that they write a confidential report and submit it to the attorney general, and the attorney general then makes a decision whether to release that report to the public,” he said.

“I think Merrick Garland will be under a lot of pressure from Republicans to release that report, but I have to say, this circumstance is very different from the Mueller investigation, where, obviously, the attorney general, Bill Barr, did release that report,” the former spokesman said.

“But it does not have to be the last word. Lots of times in the past — there’s ample precedent for this — when reports like this have been written by the Justice Department, the leadership decides whether that actually reflects their view,” he said. “John Durham does not get to be the final arbiter of what the Justice Department believes, so it would be appropriate for Merrick Garland to either review it and come up with his conclusions or, maybe more appropriately, refer it to the senior career official.”

But it gets worse.

Senate Democrats are mulling action against Durham as he prepares to release an investigative report following his more than two-year probe into the origins of the false ‘Trump-Russia collusion’ narrative.

Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee were responding to a well-timed New York Times report over claiming that there were ethical concerns during the investigation that led to several staff departures. They included alleged concerns over former Attorney General William Barr’s involvement in the probe, as well as the decision to go to trial lacking sufficient evidence.

“These reports about abuses in Special Counsel Durham’s investigation — so outrageous that even his longtime colleagues quit in protest — are but one of many instances where former President Trump and his allies weaponized the Justice Department,” committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) noted in a statement.

“The Justice Department should work on behalf of the American people, not for the personal benefit of any president. As we wait for the results of ongoing internal reviews, the Senate Judiciary Committee will do its part and take a hard look at these repeated episodes, and the regulations and policies that enabled them, to ensure such abuses of power cannot happen again,” he said.

The DOJ previously suggested that when Durham finishes his investigation, his report will likely be made public.

Durham Sends Major Message To Attorney General Merrick Garland
Martin Walsh, April 18, 2023

An op-ed published by The Hill lays out what makes Special Counsel John Durham’s ongoing investigation into the origins of the “Trump-Russia collusion” investigation significant.

The piece, by Kevin R. Brock, a former assistant director of intelligence for the FBI, notes that for a year and a half, the country did not hear much of out Durham after he was appointed late in former President Trump’s term. Aside from indictments regarding “peripheral” figures, it looked to many of Trump’s supporters as though not much was going to come of Durham’s probe and “that elites higher up the stack are going to get away with their chicanery,” Brock wrote.

“The problem for Durham is that these perceptions were providing the Biden Department of Justice (DOJ) with increasing political top cover to shut down the special prosecutor’s office as an unproductive, politics-driven exercise in futility that is wasting taxpayer dollars,” Brock continued.

“If Durham were to be terminated, the American people might not even push back much since no one had a clue whether his investigation was bearing meaningful fruit,” he wrote.

Brock went on to note that Attorney General Merrick Garland has already moved to undercut Durham by undertaking measures to repair the reputation of former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe who had been fired during the Trump administration.

But, he added, Durham could not simply hold a press conference and divulge his investigation’s inner workings and findings. So instead, he used a rather “innocuous” court filing on that actually contained a number of bombshell revelations, tipping his hand to his findings.

Brock writes:

Tucked inside the court filing, John Durham laid out a good chunk of the case he’s building, and it was stunning. Durham revealed the outlines of a corrupt conspiracy by operatives linked to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. The exposed conspiracy allegedly made a contrived, fraudulent, and shocking attempt to entice the FBI and CIA to use their powers against the rival Trump campaign and presidency.

This recent filing by Durham was designed to have two effects. First, and most important, he has now made any decision by the president or attorney general to dump him much more difficult to undertake. The last time a president fired a special prosecutor who was making significant progress, he lost his presidency. [Our emphasis]

Second, Durham has signaled to the American people that his investigation has legs, despite perceptions of plodding inertia. He has provided hope that accountability in D.C. — rare as a MAGA sticker on a Prius — actually might happen.

Brock concludes that given what Durham has recently disclosed, there are more than sufficient grounds to allow him to continue his probe.

Senate Democrats are also mulling action against Durham as he prepares to release an investigative report following his more than two-year probe into the origins of the false ‘Trump-Russia collusion’ narrative.

Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee were responding to a well-timed New York Times report over the weekend claiming that there were ethical concerns during the investigation that led to several staff departures.

They included alleged concerns over former Attorney General William Barr’s involvement in the probe, as well as the decision to go to trial lacking sufficient evidence.

“These reports about abuses in Special Counsel Durham’s investigation — so outrageous that even his longtime colleagues quit in protest — are but one of many instances where former President Trump and his allies weaponized the Justice Department,” committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) noted in a statement.

“The Justice Department should work on behalf of the American people, not for the personal benefit of any president. As we wait for the results of ongoing internal reviews, the Senate Judiciary Committee will do its part and take a hard look at these repeated episodes, and the regulations and policies that enabled them, to ensure such abuses of power cannot happen again,” he said.

Last month, Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan predicted that Durham would at some point go after the FBI for an alleged role in perpetuating what turned out to be a false narrative about former President Trump and Russia.

Jordan said he is working to expose problems with the Trump-Russia investigation and contended that Durham will finish his investigation with a bang. Jordan noted that Russian-born analyst Igor Danchenko — a key source for the Steele dossier that alleged ties between the Donald Trump campaign and Russia — was arrested as part of the Durham investigation.

The most important allegations made in the Steele dossier — which had connections to Clinton’s 2016 campaign and the law firm Perkins Coie — have not been proven and many have been disputed by the FBI.

“So, these are lies from 2016 and 2017. I think that’s a key distinction. These are indictments from the original lies. This is not a lie. These are the lies that started the whole Russia investigation,” he added.

This week, the U.S. Department of Justice notified Jordan it won’t give his panel access to most of the information he has requested regarding the probe into President Joe Biden’s mishandling of classified and sensitive documents.

In a letter sent to Jordan and GOP Rep. Mike Johnson, Assistant Attorney General Carlos Felipe Uriarte cites a handful of “special rules” governing special counsel probes that bar the Justice Department from releasing such information to the publi

Merrick Garland Provides Update On John Durham Investigation
Martin Walsh, May 3, 2023


Special Counsel John Durham began his investigation several years ago into the origins of the probe into former President Donald Trump allegedly colluding with Russia during the 2016 election.

Durham’s probe, which began in April 2019, may finally be nearing an end.

Attorney General Merrick Garland said Tuesday that he has not received a final report from Durham and informed reporters to speak to the special counsel’s office about any questions pertaining to the probe.

“I haven’t received the report and any other questions I suggest you reach out to Mr. Durham,” Garland said Tuesday.

During testimony last month before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies, Garland hinted that he expects Durham’s investigation to be done in the near future.

“The rare update on Durham’s inquiry into potential misconduct in the Trump-Russia probe came during testimony before a Senate committee. Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) asked Garland about why former Hillary Clinton campaign attorney Michael Sussmann, who was found not guilty of lying to the FBI in a blow to Durham’s investigation, apparently had a badge to get into the bureau’s headquarters in the run-up to the 2016 election,” The Daily Wire reported.

“On the particular question about Sussman, I think we’re going to have to wait until Mr. Durham finishes his report, which should be relatively soon,” the attorney general said.

“I certainly don’t in any way want to interfere with him,” he said. “And he’s the one who would know the answer to that. On the more general question, I can certainly ask my team to look into how lawyers have special badges.”

Democrats, however, are making moves of their own.

An Obama-era spokesman for the Department of Justice believes that Special Counsel John Durham should not get the final say over his own report. Matthew Miller — who served as the director of the Department of Justice’s public affairs office between 2009 and 2011 — said that Attorney General Merrick Garland, or another high-ranking official within the department, should review the report before it is shared with Americans.

“His cases are over. I think it’s clear that he’s not going to bring any more charges in this investigation, but one of the requirements for special counsels under the regulations is that they write a confidential report and submit it to the attorney general, and the attorney general then makes a decision whether to release that report to the public,” he said.

“I think Merrick Garland will be under a lot of pressure from Republicans to release that report, but I have to say, this circumstance is very different from the Mueller investigation, where, obviously, the attorney general, Bill Barr, did release that report,” the former spokesman said.

“But it does not have to be the last word. Lots of times in the past — there’s ample precedent for this — when reports like this have been written by the Justice Department, the leadership decides whether that actually reflects their view,” he said. “John Durham does not get to be the final arbiter of what the Justice Department believes, so it would be appropriate for Merrick Garland to either review it and come up with his conclusions or, maybe more appropriately, refer it to the senior career official.”

But it gets worse.

Senate Democrats are mulling action against Durham as he prepares to release an investigative report following his more than two-year probe into the origins of the false ‘Trump-Russia collusion’ narrative.

Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee were responding to a well-timed New York Times report over claiming that there were ethical concerns during the investigation that led to several staff departures. They included alleged concerns over former Attorney General William Barr’s involvement in the probe, as well as the decision to go to trial lacking sufficient evidence.

“These reports about abuses in Special Counsel Durham’s investigation — so outrageous that even his longtime colleagues quit in protest — are but one of many instances where former President Trump and his allies weaponized the Justice Department,” committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) noted in a statement.

“The Justice Department should work on behalf of the American people, not for the personal benefit of any president. As we wait for the results of ongoing internal reviews, the Senate Judiciary Committee will do its part and take a hard look at these repeated episodes, and the regulations and policies that enabled them, to ensure such abuses of power cannot happen again,” he said.

The DOJ previously suggested that when Durham finishes his investigation, his report will likely be made public.

BREAKING: Special Counsel John Durham’s Report Finally Exposes Trump-Russia Hoax
By Jake Ruppert, May 15, 2023 Updated:May 15, 2023

The report of Department of Justice Special Counsel John Durham, who was appointed by then-Attorney General Bill Barr in 2019 to investigate the origins of the faux Trump-Russia probe dubbed “Operation Crossfire Hurricane,” has finally seen the light of day.

In a thread of tweets posted Monday, Sean Davis, the co-founder and CEO of The Federalist, revealed that his publication has received the 306-page report and explained a number of the conclusions made.

“Special prosecutor John Durham concluded that ‘neither U.S. nor the Intelligence Community appears to have possessed any actual evidence of collusion in their holdings at the commencement of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation’,” Davis wrote.



Expanding on the news minutes later, Davis pulled a quote from the report stating that the bureau had exactly no evidence of any misdoing between a Trump campaign official and the Russians:

“FBI records prepared by [Peter] Strzok in February and March 2017 show that at the time of the opening of Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI had no information in its holdings indicating that at any time during the campaign anyone in the Trump had been in contact with any Russian intelligence officials.”

According to Davis, the report confirms that the FBI, during the tail end of President Barack Obama’s tenure, attempted and failed to obtain a FISA warrant to spy on George Papadopoulos, who served as a foreign policy adviser to Trump during 2016.



Davis also confirmed that the FBI could not corroborate any details or allegations levied in the explosive Steele dossier.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/18/politics/steele-dossier-reckoning/index.html



Conservative commentator Greg Price added that the report found that every major Obama administration member – including Vice President Joe Biden – was briefed on Hillary Clinton’s “plan” to create a false narrative linking Trump to Russia in 2016 by CIA Director John Brennan:



In the wake of the bombshell release, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) said he has reached out to DOJ to request testimony from Durham for “next week.”



This story is developing and will be updated.

Trump reacts to Durham FBI report: ‘Scammed’
Brett Samuels
Mon, May 15, 2023 at 3:32 PM MDT

Former President Trump on Monday hailed the findings of Justice Department special counsel John Durham, whose final report after a four-year investigation was deeply critical of the FBI’s investigation into Trump’s 2016 campaign.

“WOW! After extensive research, Special Counsel John Durham concludes the FBI never should have launched the Trump-Russia Probe! In other words, the American Public was scammed, just as it is being scammed right now by those who don’t want to see GREATNESS for AMERICA!” Trump wrote on Truth Social in his first reaction to the 305-page report.

In a subsequent interview with Fox News Digital, Trump called the FBI’s investigation of him a “disgrace” and argued former FBI Director James Comey and others should face consequences.

“I, and much more importantly, the American public, have been victims of this long-running and treasonous charade started by the Democrats — started by Comey,” Trump told the outlet. “There must be a heavy price to pay for putting our country through this.”

Durham’s report, released Monday afternoon, concluded authorities didn’t have sufficient information to open the case, and he issued a scathing assessment of how the FBI handled certain evidence.

“As the more complete record now shows, there are specific areas of Crossfire Hurricane activity in which the FBI badly underperformed and failed, not only in its duties to the public, but also in preventing the severe reputational harm that has befallen the FBI as a consequence of Crossfire Hurricane,” Durham wrote in the report.

“Importantly, had the Crossfire Hurricane actors faithfully followed their own principles regarding objectivity and integrity, there were clear opportunities to have avoided the mistakes and to have prevented the damage resulting from their embrace of seriously flawed information that they failed to analyze and assess properly,” he continued.

Durham was appointed in 2019 by then-Attorney General Bill Barr to investigate the origins of the FBI probe, a move that Trump welcomed at the time. Trump himself repeatedly raised expectations for the Durham probe, suggesting it would unveil the “crime of the century.”

Durham’s investigation yielded multiple indictments but limited results in court. Two individuals – Igor Danchenko and Michael Sussmann – were charged with lying to the FBI and found not guilty, and a third individual pleaded guilty to doctoring an email about a surveillance warrant.

Monday’s report did not call for any additional charges.

Still, Durham’s findings are likely to exacerbate partisan tensions about alleged bias within the FBI and Justice Department.

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), a top Trump ally in the House and chairman of the Judiciary Committee, tweeted that he had reached out to the Justice Department to have Durham testify next week.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who ran against Trump in 2016, said the report “details serious and unforgivable breaches by federal law enforcement.”

3,000 comments at https://news.yahoo.com/trump-reacts-durham-fbi-report-213254795.html

Republicans Say Obama Was Aware of Biden Family Business Dealings
Jon Dougherty, May 15, 2023

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) made a claim during a Friday interview that implicated former President Barack Obama in regard to allegations involving the family of his then-Vice President Joe Biden.

Comer, in an interview with the Great America Show, hosted by Lou Dobbs, hinted that Obama was aware of the Biden family’s questionable international business deals that have been the focus of a years-long federal probe.

“I believe, Lou, that it’s because he knew what Joe Biden was doing the last year of his vice presidency,” Comer said.

“He knew his son (Hunter Biden) was no good, and he knew this was nothing but a political liability not just for our country, not just for the democrat party, but for Obama’s legacy,” the Kentucky Republican added.

Comer also raised the possibility that Obama’s awareness of the family’s business dealings might have influenced his hesitation to fully endorse Biden’s presidential campaign in 2020.

“So, I think that’s why Obama didn’t want Joe Biden to run for president. I think they knew about this,” Comer said, referencing the Biden family’s dealings. “And remember, a lot of these coverups would have happened during the Obama administration with Obama appointees in these deep state bureaucracies.”









He also suggested that Obama be questioned under oath about what he may have known back then.

“This would be a great question for Obama: Were you aware of what was going on with Joe Biden with respect to foreign policy and some of these ragtag countries around the world?” Comer told Dobbs.

Last week, Comer said he has received credible allegations that Hunter Biden’s legal team is threatening and intimidating potential witnesses.

“We’ve got witnesses that are scared to death to come forward. They fear for their lives,” he told the Just the News podcast this week.

Comer said pressure was being put on witnesses from his district, adding banks that complied with subpoenas issued by his Oversight and Accountability Committee are being pressured by high-ranking officials in the Democrat Party.

Comer told the program that he was deeply concerned about legal letters and implied threats that have been sent to witnesses by supporters of Hunter Biden. According to reports, cooperating banks have received threats, and political attack campaigns have been financed in the districts of some lawmakers who are investigating allegations of influence peddling by the Biden family.

“The Hunter Biden legal team — they’re testing the limits,” Comer said. “I’ll put it like that with respect to witness intimidation. I mean, just look in my district. We’ve got dark money groups that are being funded through prominent high-ranking Democrat officials in Congress. Also, the communications director for the White House continues to retweet things trying to intimidate me for having the audacity to investigate.

“We’ve got witnesses that are scared to death to come forward. They fear for their lives. I mean, you’ve got the banks that have worked with us, they’re being squeezed by attorneys, by high-ranking officials in the Democrat Party for having the nerve to work with us to comply with our subpoenas,” he added.

As lawyers for Hunter Biden met with the DOJ to discuss the possibility of criminal charges, the case has heated up. Additionally, an IRS whistleblower received permission from the House Ways and Means Committee to testify to lawmakers about political interference in the criminal investigation of Hunter Biden’s tax affairs.

During the past two years, congressional investigators have had access to an email from Hunter Biden’s business associate, Eric Schwerin, in which he warned Biden that he had failed to pay taxes on $400,000 in income received from Ukraine energy company Burisma Holdings, dating back to 2014.

Schwerin is now cooperating with Comer’s investigation, according to the Kentucky Republican.

FBI Makes Huge Admission After Durham Releases Final Report
Martin Walsh, May 16, 2023

The FBI was forced to make a big admission after Special Counsel John Durham released the findings on the years-long investigation into former President Donald Trump and alleged Russian collusion.

Durham found the FBI used “uncorroborated intelligence” when it launched its investigation into Trump before the 2016 presidential election and that agents failed repeatedly to maintain “strict fidelity to the law” throughout the probe.

Soon after the report was made available to the public, the FBI responded by acknowledging there were several errors made in 2016. The bureau also conceded that the findings in Durham’s report are accurate.

“The conduct in 2016 and 2017 that Special Counsel Durham examined was the reason that current FBI leadership already implemented dozens of corrective actions, which have now been in place for some time. Had those reforms been in place in 2016, the missteps identified in the report could have been prevented,” the FBI admitted in its statement.

“This report reinforces the importance of ensuring the FBI continues to do its work with the rigor, objectivity, and professionalism the American people deserve and rightly expect,” it added.

The Daily Caller noted crucial findings in the report about Hillary Clinton:

The report noted that the FBI received intelligence that Hillary Clinton’s campaign approved “a proposal from one of her foreign policy advisors to vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by Russian security services,” specifically one that involved “tying him to Putin and the Russians’ hacking of the Democratic National Committee” to distract the public from her email scandals. It notes that President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, and FBI Director James Comey were personally briefed on Clinton’s scheme, known as the “Clinton Plan” in the report, by CIA Director John Brennan, who recorded mentioning the plan in his handwritten notes.

The “Clinton Plan” was obtained by the FBI while it was relying on the “Steele Dossier,” a discredited report of lurid allegations of Trump’s personal sexual activity, which the FBI knew was being funded and promoted by the Clinton campaign, according to the report. Durham quotes information from a meeting between the Dossier’s author, former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele, and FBI agents, as well as texts between FBI officials, to demonstrate that the agents knew the evidence was connected to Clinton.

Durham’s report also found that the FBI and U.S. Department of Justice wasted little time to investigate Trump and that there was a “notable departure” from the way it resisted efforts to investigate claims against Clinton’s campaign.

The FBI briefed Clinton staffers on information of possible threats aimed at the Clinton campaign but ignored intelligence it received from “a trusted foreign source pointing to a Clinton campaign plan to vilify Trump by tying him to Vladimir Putin so as to divert attention from her own concerns relating to her use of a private email server.”

Durham’s report also found that “neither U.S. nor the Intelligence Community appears to have possessed any actual evidence of collusion in their holdings at the commencement” of the investigation.

“Our investigation determined that the Crossfire Hurricane investigators did not and could not corroborate any of the substantive allegations contained in the Steele reporting,” the report found.

“Based on the review of Crossfire Hurricane and related intelligence activities, we conclude that the Department and the FBI failed to uphold their mission of strict fidelity to the law in connection with certain events and activities described in this report,” Durham said in the report.

Durham said the investigation revealed, “senior FBI personnel displayed a serious lack of analytical rigor towards the information that they received, especially information received from politically-affiliated persons and entities. This information in part triggered and sustained Crossfire Hurricane and contributed to the subsequent need for Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation. In particular, there was significant reliance on investigative leads provided or funded (directly or indirectly) by Trump’s political opponents.”

“The Department did not adequately examine or question these materials and the motivations of those providing them, even when at about the same time the Director of the FBI and others learned of significant and potentially contrary intelligence,” it said.