OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
An Obama-era spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice claims that Special Counsel John Durham should not have the final say in his own investigation into alleged misconduct in the FBI’s Trump-Russia investigation.
Matthew Miller, who served as the director of the department’s public affairs office from 2009 to 2011, argued 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. 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,” Miller said.
“It’s different because in that case, the subject of that investigation could not be charged, and so it was appropriate for the department to make its findings public, so Congress could decide whether to impeach and convict the then-sitting president,” he continued. “That is not the case here, so to release a report in this instance — given what we know about the way that Durham has behaved, some of his inappropriate public statements during this investigation, the poor judgments he has made in bringing these charges — to release a report publicly and let him have the final word I think probably unfairly tarnish some people at the FBI that we know he holds ill will to based on some of the things he said in this most recent trial.”
Durham’s investigation has cost around $6.5 million and his final report could be released soon.
“John Durham, the special counsel investigating potential misconduct in the Trump-Russia probe, has spent at least $6.5 million on his inquiry, including $2 million this year, according to financial documents released Friday by the Justice Department. The topline $6.5 million figure captures Durham’s spending between October 2020 and September 2022. However, Durham started his inquiry in early 2019, and the cost of his first year and a half of the work has not been disclosed. That’s because he was working at that time as a US attorney and was only appointed as a special counsel in October 2020,” CNN reported.
CNN has reported that Durham’s investigation is now in its final stages as his team finishes up its written report, which will be sent to Attorney General Merrick Garland. The attorney general and other top Justice Department officials will decide how much of the report to make public. Garland has previously said he wants to release “as much as possible.”
Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson recently revealed that Durham’s investigation has “hindered Congress as lawmakers seek to root out FBI misconduct and examine the shady business dealings of Hunter Biden.”
“Blame was cast during a recent interview on Newsmax in which Johnson vented about a dearth of successful prosecutions in Durham’s endeavor, which appears to be wrapping up as the prosecutor takes the alleged main source for a now-infamous dossier alleging ties between former President Donald Trump and Russia to court this month. The senator said he was unsatisfied, noting the lack of a conviction against lawyer Michael Sussmann, who was acquitted in May,” the Washington Examiner reported.
“Our efforts in terms of investigating Hunter Biden, and corruption within the FBI was certainly hampered because we had an active criminal investigation under John Durham,” Johnson said.
“Although Johnson suggested Durham’s investigation, which is looking for misconduct in the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane investigation and has secured one conviction so far, poses a roadblock for congressional oversight, Republicans are gearing up for a wider investigation into the allegations of FBI malfeasance if they win control of at least one chamber in the November midterm elections,” the report continued.
“The American public deserves to know the truth of the corruption that was occurring within the Department of Justice and the FBI,” Johnson said.
