OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Former Attorney General William Barr on Friday provided an update on the progress made so far by the ‘Russiagate’ special counsel he appointed, John Durham.
In an interview with Fox News’ “The Story,” Barr said that Durham has “dug very deep” into the origins of the FBI’s investigation into disproven claims then-GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump was ‘colluding’ with Russia to interfere with the 2016 election and has uncovered “good information,” while going on to suggest the initial probe was completely motivated by politics.
“I think the question all along … has been that this was a campaign-dirty-trick to get the government to investigate allegations — scurrilous allegations — about Donald Trump and then leak that right before the election,” Barr said.
“And so that raises two questions: Was the Clinton campaign developing this false information and feeding it in for that purpose? And what was the FBI’s role on this?”
Fox News added:
Barr said the investigation into former Clinton attorney Michael Sussmann, who has been indicted in the probe, is key to figuring out whether Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign was engaged in illegalities.
“It tells me that he [has] dug very deep and he has developed some good information and he thinks he can make a criminal case here,” Barr said.
“And there’s never been a doubt in my mind that if there’s a crime to be proven in and brought by the prosecutor, Durham will do it,” he said of the former U.S. attorney for Connecticut.
Barr was also asked about recent allegations against Trump — claims that the former president broke the law in bringing classified White House documents to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., which the former AG said are akin to making “a mountain out of a molehill.”
“[T]he whole classification system is for the president — it’s his authority that is used for it. And he can classify or declassify things if he wants,” said Barr, adding that there is “perhaps a technical violation” at play.
Barr’s assessment comes on the heels of a series of reports involving details of recent court filings in Durham’s investigation indicating that the special counsel’s team believes criminal violations occurred and that Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign was involved in establishing the phony Russian collusion narrative.
Last fall, Durham indicted Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann for lying to the FBI when he passed on the false narrative. Durham claims that Sussmann told the bureau he was not working on behalf of any client when it passed along the information but in reality he was working on behalf of the former first lady’s campaign.
Last month, a federal judge rejected a bid by Sussmann to “strike” a “factual background” section of Special Counsel John Durham’s early February court filing.
Sussmann’s legal team filed a motion demanding that the court remove portions of the Feb. 11 filing that included the “Factual Background” section by claiming that it would “taint” a jury.
“Allowing this case to go forward would risk criminalizing ordinary conduct, raise First Amendment concerns, dissuade honest citizens from coming forward with tips, and chill the advocacy of lawyers who interact with the government,” the filing stated.
Durham slammed Sussmann’s “absurd” bid to have charges that he lied to the FBI dropped against him.
In a scathing court filing, the special counsel accused Sussmann of misleading the FBI in 2016 by passing on “highly explosive allegations” about then-presidential candidate Donald Trump without disclosing his links with the Clinton campaign.
Durham’s team also called his claims “absurd” and asked the federal court in the District of Columbia to proceed.
“Far from finding himself in the vulnerable position of an ordinary person whose speech is likely to be chilled, the defendant – a sophisticated and well-connected lawyer – chose to bring politically-charged allegations to the FBI’s chief legal officer at the height of an election season,” Durham wrote in his court filing.
“He then chose to lie about the clients who were behind those allegations. Using such rare access to the halls of power for the purposes of political deceit is hardly the type of speech that the Founders intended to protect,” Durham added.
In the end, the court agreed with Durham.
“I’m not going to strike anything from the record,” U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Christopher Cooper responded during a status hearing. “Whatever effect the filing has had has already passed.”
