OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Special Counsel John Durham is reportedly getting to the end of his investigation into the Russia witch hunt against former President Donald Trump. After making a key arrest months ago and unveiling key evidence in court for over two years, conservative commentator John Solomon believes Durham will round out his investigation by going after the FBI.
Russian-born analyst Igor Danchenko — key source for the unverified Steele dossier that alleged ties between Donald Trump’s campaign and Russia — was arrested by federal agents last year as part of the Durham investigation. 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.
“A month after the CIA sends a warning to the FBI, this is something John Ratcliffe declassified, saying Hillary Clinton is trying to play a dirty trick on Donald Trump to tie him to Russia to get out of her e-mail thing. All through the fall, they keep a spreadsheet of what’s right and wrong with the Steele dossier. It’s all wrong. Can’t corroborate, they can’t collaborate the information. The FBI never should have started the investigation and I think that’s where John Durham’s investigation is focused right now,” he added.
Durham’s investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia witch hunt has been heating up for months, with many wanting Hillary Clinton and her allies held accountable.
Other signs point to Obama-Clinton holdovers not wanting Durham’s report to be made public, which is also very telling.
An Obama-era spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice claims that 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.
