Special counsel to review origins of Trump-Russia investigation, Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections, the 2005 destruction of interrogation tapes, Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, Timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, Timeline of investigations into Donald Trump and Russia (2019), Timeline of investigations into Donald Trump and Russia (20202021), "John Durham Named Interim U.S. Attorney; Presidential Nomination Expected", "Prosecutor Who Unraveled Corruption in Boston Turns to C.I.A. 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. Rather, it meant that there was a well-established shared concern that no appearance of or actual political interference was to take place. [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. At the time, Sussmann worked for the law firm Perkins Coie, which has long ties to Democrats; he has since resigned. Congressional investigators asked Sussmann in 2017 about this episode with Baker. Get a 17% Off In-Store Coupon When You Sign Up For Dunham's Email Rewards But Baker emphasized that he intentionally avoided learning more about the claim. It also details meetings that Sussmann had with a partner at his law firm who was general counsel to the Clinton campaign as well as a tech executive who was a client of Sussmann's and researchers about purported links between Trump Organization computer systems and a Russian bank. 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. Mr. | U.S. Department of Justice/AP Photo. The special prosecutor probing the origins of the federal investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia, John Durham, has charged Washington lawyer Michael Sussmann with lying to the FBI during the early stages of the inquiry. After being asked by the Biden Administration to resign, John Durham left his United States Attorney in February 2021. One such notable case was that of John G. Rowland. The move continues Trumps long-standing practice of appealing for foreign interference in American politics. [17] On October 19, 2020, Barr appointed Durham Special Counsel to lead the Durham special counsel investigation in an effort to ensure the investigation continued after the Trump administration ended. 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. Attorneys President Joe Biden asked to resign in February 2021. Durham boasts over four decades in the legal field, and Time magazine has noted his nonpartisan professionalism. ", "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. Sign up now to get the Washington Examiners breaking news and timely commentary delivered right to your inbox. At the senior leadership level, great deference was given to career officials like the legendary David Margolis who had served in multiple administrations. From 1994 to 2008, he served as the Deputy U.S. Attorney, and served as the U.S. Attorney in an acting and interim capacity in 1997 and 1998. The administrations effort to recover the Justice Departments integrity is not limited to the Hunter Biden case. However, little else is known about Durhams personal wealth. Durham would be responsible for the successful prosecution of John J. Connolly, Jr. (Connollys story with Bulger was immortalized on film in Black Mass). John Durham News Current Page: 1 . Sussmann has committed no crime, defense attorneys Sean Berkowitz and Michael Bosworth said in the statement. 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. A spokesperson for Garland did not immediately respond to a request for comment on his role in the case. Unbelievably, Durham now explains that the counterintelligence investigation was closed because the FBI incorrectly believed that [Danchenko] had left the country.. The charge against Sussmann from a Washington grand jury is the first outward sign of activity in Durhams investigation in nearly nine months. The administrations effort to recover the Justice Departments integrity is not limited to the Hunter Biden case. Igor Danchenko leaves Albert V. Bryan United States Courthouse in Alexandria, Va., Thursday, Nov. 4, 2021. Coronation prompts scrutiny of royal wealth. Raskin roasts Durham inquiry as 'total flop,' presses Republicans to investigate. Last year, Durham indicted him on five counts of lying to the FBI. was arrested Thursday in Northern Virginia onan indictment that special counsel John Durham obtained charging the Russian-born researcher with five felony counts of . 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. An accounting released earlier this year showed Durhams investigation cost U.S. taxpayers about $1.45 million from mid-October 2020 through March 2021. But it gets worse. [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. [3][11] After graduation, he was a VISTA volunteer for two years (19751977) on the Crow Indian Reservation in Montana. Durham was born in Boston, Massachusetts. The latest report includes some expenses . In particular, Durham worked as a part of the Boston Strike Force. 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. [12], In May 2019, William Barr chose Durham to lead a probe into the origins of the FBI's Crossfire Hurricane investigation and the Mueller special counsel investigation. Yet, many legal experts as well as political pundits describe him as possessing an apolitical reputation. While Durham characteristically keeps a low profile and rarely speaks to the press, Americans anticipate his investigations further findings. Sussmann also tried to deliver similar material to another undisclosed agency in December 2016, after Trump had won the election. Sussmanns lawyers also contend that he never made such a statement, that the evidence in the case is weak and that theres no sign the alleged falsehood affected the FBIs work. [22][23][24] On November 8, 2010, Durham closed the investigation without recommending any criminal charges be filed. By KELLY HOOPER and JOSH GERSTEIN. Law And Order. The Patriarca family, who chiefly made up the New England Mafia, had territory in Eastern Connecticut, where Durham was prosecutor. 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. CNN After two years of searching for problems with the investigation into Donald Trump's campaign advisers in 2016 and their ties to Russia, federal prosecutor John Durham hasn't found. The FBI ultimately could not find anything nefarious about the connections. Of course, that did not mean that people were not aware of which cases were politically sensitive. September 16, 2021 at 7:45 p.m. EDT. The case is one of three brought so far by special counsel John Durham, who was tapped in 2019 by then-Attorney General William Barr to investigate the genesis of the FBI's Trump-Russia probe.. [18][19], Durham resigned as U.S. Attorney effective February 28, 2021. [7][8] Barr disclosed in December 2020 that he had elevated Durham's status to special counsel in October 2020, ensuring that the Durham special counsel investigation could continue after the Trump administration ended. So far, only one other individual a former low-level FBI attorney named Kevin Clinesmith has been charged in the investigation. Last week, in a jaw-dropping court submission, Durham revealed that the FBI signed up Danchenko as an informant and paid him for almost three years from March 2017 through October 2020. The collusion accusations were part of the basis for a number of FISA warrants which allowed government entities to gather intelligence on the Trump family and its organization. Sussmanns meeting with Baker had already been a subject of intense interest to Republicans on Capitol Hill, who grilled Baker about it during closed-door testimony in October 2018 during their own probe of the origins of the FBIs Trump-Russia investigation. Durham had spent five years as a state prosecutor before he went to work for the United States Attorney Generals office (District of Connecticut). Durham was asked to be the special prosecutor for another major corruption case this time involving the destruction of CIA interrogation tapes. U.S. Attorney John Durham, center, outside federal court in New Haven, Connecticut in February 2021 Sussmann's allies believed they found some potentially alarming links from Trump to Russia,. And Durham is gearing up for his last trial: the prosecution of Igor Danchenko, the principal source for the discredited Steele dossier. The tally is not a complete accounting of Durhams expenses since his investigation began in the spring of 2019. Durham has been rather quiet but professional regarding his current case. 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. [6] He was one of 56 remaining Trump-appointed U.S. Sussmann worked on cybersecurity and privacy issues at the law firm Perkins Coie. He was initially a Deputy Assistant State Attorney serving in the Office of the Chief States Attorney in Connecticut. Washington DC 20530, Contact the Department
Attorney General Merrick Garland is said to anticipate receiving his final report by the end of the year. 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. For now, we have to hope that Durhams final report will answer that question. Durhams prosecutors presented abundant evidence that Sussmann had falsely told the FBI that he was not working for the Clinton campaign when he peddled spurious information about a supposed Trump-Putin communications back channel. Sussmann told Baker that he wasn't passing the information along at the behest of any client. The indictment alleges that Sussmann "lied about the capacity in which he was providing the allegations to the FBI.". At that time, he was both a supervisor as well as a lawyer at the New Haven Field Office. It led to unprecedented letters signed by former department officials calling for the resignation of former Attorney General William Barr. And in all of the regular reports she received from line prosecutors, supervisors and heads of divisions, that concern was never brought up. Some fear his work for Barr could tarnish it. However, even though the report was intended to remain secret, report Charlie Savage attempted to use FISA in order to see the results of Durhams investigation, but the attempt was unsuccessful. Danchenko and Sussmann are among the three people who have faced criminal charges from Durhams probe since it was commissioned by then-attorney general William Barr in May 2019. He was appointed by Michael Mukasey to investigate whether tapes had been destroyed after interrogations. President Joe Biden and his administration are putting on a master's class in ethics in the federal investigation into the business dealings of the president's son Hunter Biden. His wife is Susan (no maiden name revealed), and public information shows that he has four sons as well as eight grandchildren with his wife. Secure .gov websites use HTTPS Durhams quiet demeanor lends little public knowledge of his personal life. The information was significant because it was included in a series of reports prepared by British ex-spy Christopher Steele, who had been hired by an opposition research firm working for the Clinton campaign. Nov 4, 2021, 12:40 PM PDT John Durham and Donald Trump. The spending, detailed in documents released Wednesday by the Department of Justice, coincides with an uptick in activity from Durham and his team in recent months. 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. Then-Attorney General Bill Barr tapped Durham in May 2019 to examine how the FBIs investigation into the Trump campaign and Russia began. 950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Torture Raises New Questions", "Holder Hires Prosecutor to Look Into Alleged CIA Interrogation Abuses", "Investigation of Bush-era Torture Concludes With No Charges", "Holder Rules Out Prosecutions in C.I.A. How rich is King Charles? It was closed in 2012 with no charges filed. In staff meetings with the attorney general, no one ever mentioned the political ramifications of any case. Special Counsels Office It is a case focusing on a single private citizen who happens to be the son of a sitting president. Bill Hennessy CNN Special counsel John Durham gave a glimpse on Wednesday of his extensive use of a federal grand jury to. Of that, nearly $1.9 million was directly related to the teams investigation and approximately $471,000 was spent by other parts of the Justice Department in connection to Durhams work. I signed one of those letters. 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. This article was published more than1 year ago. The regulations regarding special counsels are pretty clear about what Mr. Durham does, Garland told reporters on Dec. 6. The first, Kevin Clinesmith, pleaded guilty to altering an email used to obtain a surveillance warrant against former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. ) or https:// means youve safely connected to the .gov website. An official website of the United States government. Ironically, most of Durhams career has been spent in the United States government, whether he was a United States Attorney, a Chief of the Criminal Division (for a District Attorney office), a supervisor for a District Attorneys field office. A locked padlock This 2018 portrait released by the U.S. Department of Justice shows Connecticut's U.S. Attorney John Durham. NEWS UPDATE. John Durham volunteered with the VISTA program (Volunteers in Service to America), which provided a number of services to those in impoverished areas. This is a private university, known for liberal arts studies. Sussmann is facing a single false statements count in connection with a conversation he had with then-FBI general counsel Jim Baker on Sept. 19, 2016. Its significance is to remind the American people that no one is above the law. Does everybody remember when we caught the Democrats, red-handed, SPYING ON MY CAMPAIGN? [12], After Durham's volunteer work, he became a state prosecutor in Connecticut. Danchenko has pleaded not guilty; an attorney representing him when he was charged has asserted Danchenkos work as a researcher is above reproach and that people with an agenda were seeking to tarnish his reputation. Special counsel John Durham, here in 2018, was tapped by former Attorney General William Barr to look into the origins of the FBI's investigation into connections between the Trump campaign and Russia. 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. [14], From 2008 to 2012, Durham served as the acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. The development is a potential sign that Durham may be mulling additional . 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. The FBI used those reports to justify obtaining secret surveillance orders targeting former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page to advance the agencys probe of possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia. At times, he would serve as an interim United States Attorney General. As the investigation heats up, Bidens hands-off approach versus Donald Trumps hands everywhere approach is starkly illustrated by Trumps shoutout to Russian President Vladimir Putin to release dirt on Hunter Biden. Interestingly enough, one of the corruption charges against Rowland had to do with election fraud. Some close to the investigation have said Durham appeared not simply to be seeking out potential crimes, but conducting a broader review of the quality of the intelligence that led the FBI to begin investigating people tied to the Trump campaign. Priestap, Baker told lawmakers, assured him that he had extensively followed up on the Alfa Bank matter. The latest report includes some expenses from that prior time frame, which came in higher than had been estimated. What I learned was that updates to the attorney general and other senior leadership offices, like that of the deputy attorney general, needed to come up through the chain of command of lower-level section chiefs and division heads to buffer prosecutors working on the cases from feeling as though political appointees were pressuring them. 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. He was sworn in on February 22, 2018. and last updated 2021-09-27 20:28:55-04. 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. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. And so I wanted to get this get the information into the hands of the agents as quickly as possible and let them deal with it. Durhams investigation indicates that Danchenko lied to the FBI multiple times, falsehoods that should have been easy for the nations flagship federal investigative agency to run down. Thanks for contacting us. By April 2019, U.S. Attorney General William Barr had tasked Durham with overseeing a review of the origins of the Russia investigation and to determine if intelligence collection involving the Trump campaign was "lawful and appropriate". WASHINGTON John H. Durham, the special counsel appointed by the Trump administration to scrutinize the Russia investigation, has told the Justice Department that he will ask a grand jury to. The special counsel designation provides an additional degree of insulation from the regular DOJ apparatus. Durham would not recommend any criminal charges be filed. The most prominent member of the New England Mafia was Peter Limone. During the Barack Obama Administration, Durham was appointed by Eric Holder to investigate accusations of torture detainees at Gitmo in order to gather intelligence. [15] He also led a series of high-profile prosecutions in Connecticut against the New England Mafia and corrupt politicians, including former Governor John G. A previous spending report released in May showed the Durham probe had totaled about $1.5 million from Oct. 19 through March 31. The case against Sussmann was assigned on Thursday to Judge Christopher Cooper, an appointee of President Barack Obama. The Debrief with Hugo Gurdon: Why nobody wants a rematch of Trump and Biden in 2024. So what happened? Clinesmiths alterations, Durham charged, obscured Pages prior relationship with the CIA. Unfortunately, two of the men had died in prison during this time. From April through September, Durham reported a tab of about $2.36 million, including about $1.89 million his team spent and about $471,000 recorded by other Justice Department offices as being in support of his work. It would also lead to the first Trump impeachment. Russiagate special counsel John Durham is in the homestretch. Throughout Durhams career, he has worked in both state and federal government. By 1994, Durham had become a Deputy United States Attorney General.
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