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Durham’s Trump-Russia Report Likely To Be Made Public: Justice Official

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OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.


Government watchdog group Judicial Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Department of Justice for “records of communication between Special Counsel John Durham and Attorney General Merrick Garland.”

The lawsuit was filed after the DOJ failed to respond to an August 23, 2021, FOIA request.

Judicial Watch is requesting the following from the DOJ:

1. All records of communication, including emails and text messages, between Special Counsel John Durham and Attorney General Merrick Garland.

2. All budget records related to the operations of the office of Special Counsel John Durham.

The U.S. Department of Justice suggested that when Durham finishes his investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia probe, his report will likely be made public.

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Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland demanding answers about Durham’s investigation.

Deputy Assistant Attorney General Joe Gaeta sent a letter back saying that he could not comment on Durham’s ongoing investigation or its status.

However, that’s not all.

The GOP Senators stated in their letter that back in October 2020, then-Attorney General Bill Barr wrote that: “The Special Counsel, to the maximum extent possible and consistent with the law and policies and practices of the Department of Justice, shall submit to the Attorney General a final report, and such interim reports as he deems appropriate, in a form that will permit public dissemination.”

In his response letter, Gaeta wrote, “The Department agrees with this statement.”

There have been a few updates in recent weeks about Durham’s investigation.

Last week, Ohio GOP Rep. Jim Jordan ripped those who pushed the phony “Trump-Russia collusion” narrative following the latest filing last Friday by special counsel John Durham, which indicated key evidence used to support the conspiracy was not feasible.

According to the special counsel’s filing, he revealed his investigation thus far has found inauthentic “user-generated” data on devices, adding that the CIA said the data that purportedly showed links between the former president and Russian banks “was not technically plausible,” “did not withstand technical scrutiny,” “conflicted with [itself],” and was “user-created and not machine/tool generated.”

“The CIA knew as early as 2017 that the Trump/Russia collusion data was not ‘technically plausible’ and was ‘user-created.’ In other words, it was made up. But Democrats and the media told you otherwise!” said Jordan in a Twitter post.

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The Daily Wire adds:

Allegations of collusion with Russia dogged former President Donald Trump during his campaign and throughout his presidency. Ex-special counsel Robert Mueller for three years investigated claims that the Trump campaign had illegally coordinated with Russian agents to influence the 2016 election. Mueller eventually concluded that no such evidence exists.

Attorney Michael Sussmann, who previously worked for the Seattle-based law firm Perkins Coie, approached the FBI, under what Durham alleges were false pretenses, with information on potential Trump/Russia collusion. Sussmann took what he said could be evidence of coordination between Trump Tower in New York and Alfa-Bank, one of the largest private banks in Russia.

The CIA, identified in the filing as “Agency-2,” knew in 2017 that at least part of the information that Sussmann had given to federal investigators was not “technically plausible” and was “user-created,” according to Durham’s Friday filing

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“For example,” wrote Durham, “while the FBI did not reach an ultimate conclusion regarding the data’s accuracy or whether it might have been in whole or in part genuine, spoofed, altered, or fabricated, Agency-2 concluded in early 2017 that the Russian Bank-1 data and Russian Phone Provider-1 data was not ‘technically plausible,’ did not ‘withstand technical scrutiny,’ ‘contained gaps,’ ‘conflicted with [itself],’ and was ‘user-created and not machine/tool generated.’ The Special Counsel’s Office has not reached a definitive conclusion in this regard.”

Over the weekend, former Utah Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz, now a Fox News host and contributor, said that Durham was unraveling an “incestuous relationship” between federal agencies involved in either helping to craft the phony narrative or failing to expose and refute it.

“I’m hearing that there are some emails that Durham has found that, again, show that they’re — that Sussmann lied to the FBI and that he also lied and misrepresented regarding the connection of all of this with DNC, which is the Democratic National Committee, and the Clinton campaign, and who paid for his bogus information that he was throwing out there,” Biggs said.

“So, it’s pretty interesting to see. And I’m not sure that the Clinton campaign folks or the Democratic Party want to see this go to trial and air their dirty laundry even further,” he added.

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