[ad_1]
Officials at the time said the delay was largely due to the need to redact Mueller’s 448-page report to remove information about ongoing investigations and prosecutions. The 306-page Durham Report is otherwise written as an unclassified document with a 29-page confidential appendix that has not been made public. There are also no known ongoing investigations by Durham’s research.
Durham, a former federal prosecutor in Connecticut, will look to see if anyone at the FBI broke the law during the 2016 Trump campaign investigation (essentially an investigation into an investigation that Mueller took over in 2017). was asked to
Mr. Durham’s conclusions didn’t break any big ground, and most of them took a tougher look at the law enforcement actions that the Justice Department inspector general strongly criticized in 2019.
The Durham investigation also did not reveal any serious criminal charges. The two cases he brought to court ended in acquittal. A former FBI attorney has agreed to plead guilty to a no-jail charge.
End of Durham Special Counsel Mandate — Nearly four years after Mr. Barr’s appointment — It drew a direct comparison to the difficult finale of Müller’s work.
After receiving Mueller’s report in the spring of 2019, Barr released a brief memo outlining its main findings, but it took several weeks before most of Mueller’s actual findings were made public. . Meanwhile, after Trump publicly declared victory and Mueller privately complained to Barr that the memo lacked context, the Mueller report was eventually made public, As Mueller’s complaint became known, Barr faced renewed criticism of his handling of the issue.
Garland received the Durham report on Friday and sent it to congressional leaders on Monday, just before the full document was shared with reporters and posted online. He did not provide an independent analysis or summary.
“The difference in play was stark,” said Mary McCord, who served as acting assistant attorney general for national security during President Barack Obama’s administration. She said, “Mr. Garland did what he said he would do when he retained Mr. Durham’s special counsel appointment. He allowed him to continue his work independently of the department.”
By contrast, Barr’s memo “was a deception to the American people,” she said.
Garland’s former Justice Department spokesman, Anthony Coley, said the attorney general “moved on a policy of minimal redaction, rapid release of the entire report, and left the public to draw its own conclusions.” said. It should be. ”
Corey said Garland “has to land Burr’s plane, a politically motivated investigation aimed at appeasing the sitting president, and how to do it without further politicizing the department.” What to do with it,” he said.
Barr did not immediately respond to a call for comment. A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment.
Democrats quickly dismissed the Durham report for not uncovering new facts, but Republicans used it to argue for additional disclosures about the FBI investigation involving President Biden’s family.
Sen. Charles E. Grassley, Republican, Iowa, said in a written statement that the report “supports concerns I have raised since I first learned of the bogus investigation in 2017. It allowed itself to be hijacked and weaponized by political actors.” Targeting political opponents during presidential elections and administrations. Restoring integrity, if at all possible, requires humility, transparency and accountability. ”
In a statement, the FBI said it had already “implemented dozens of corrective actions, and these have been in place for some time.” Had these reforms been implemented in 2016, the errors identified in the report could have been avoided. This report emphasizes the importance of the FBI continuing to operate with the rigor, objectivity, and professionalism that the American public rightly expects. ”
Former FBI Undersecretary of Counterintelligence Frank Figliuzzi said the Durham investigation was a failure, but hoped Republicans would use fragments of the report to claim victory and paint the FBI in a negative light. Told.
“If multiple indictments were the goal, he failed miserably,” Mr. Figliuzzi said, alluding to Trump’s past predictions that the investigation would reveal serious crimes. “Consolation is like the soundbite of FOX News political commodities.”
Partisan battles over how the Justice Department investigates politicians are nothing new. But the stakes have increased significantly in recent years as prosecutors and investigators conduct high-profile investigations into presidential candidates from Hillary Clinton to Trump to Biden.
2019, crowbar Mueller said he had found no conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russian officials to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. Barr also said Mueller had not reached a conclusion on whether Trump attempted to obstruct justice, but Barr had reviewed the evidence and determined it was insufficient to support such charges. . The decision particularly irritated Democrats, who saw it as a foreshadowing of issues Mueller might have intended for Congress to consider.
A few days after Barr’s memo was made public, Mueller wrote to the Attorney General complaining that the memo “did not fully capture the context, nature and substance” of his team’s work.
The letter called on Mr. Barr to publish the foreword and abstracts of the 448-page report immediately, and first presented an editorial proposal for it.
Republicans are asking Durham to testify about the findings, perhaps next week. So far, there doesn’t seem to be any tension like the last special counsel report. In a letter sent to Garland along with his report on Friday, Durham thanked the attorney general for “allowing us to pursue our investigation independently.”
[ad_2]
Source link
