John Durham has supercharged his review into the origins of the Russiagate hoax orchestrated by the Obama administration during and after the 2016 US election – adding additional top prosecutors to explore different components of the original probe, according to Fox News.
Durham, the U.S. Attorney for Connecticut tasked with by Attorney General Bill Barr with investigating the actions taken against the Trump team, has tapped Jeff Jensen – U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri who had been investigating the Michael Flynn case. Also added to the team is interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Timothy Shea, according to Fox‘s sources.
“They farmed the investigation out because it is too much for Durham and he didn’t want to be distracted,” said one source, adding “He’s going full throttle, and they’re looking at everything.”
Word of Durham’s beefed-up team comes amid worsening tensions between the Trump administration and congressional Democrats, who have been making the case that the Justice Department’s reviews have become politicized given the decision last week to drop the Flynn case – a move which House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) called “outrageous.”
“The evidence against General Flynn is overwhelming,” said Nadler – who probably wasn’t referring to handwritten notes by one of the FBI agents who interviewed Flynn which exposed their perjury trap. Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his perfectly legal communications with a Russian ambassador – a plea he made while under severe financial strain due to legal expenses, and to save his son from the FBI ‘witch hunt.’ Flynn would later withdraw his plea as evidence mounted that he was set up.
The DOJ determined that the bureau’s 2017 Flynn interview — which formed the basis for his guilty plea of lying to investigators — was “conducted without any legitimate investigative basis.”
Breadcrumbs were being dropped in the days preceding the decision that his case could be reconsidered. Documents unsealed the prior week by the Justice Department revealed agents discussed their motivations for interviewing him in the Russia probe – questioning whether they wanted to “get him to lie” so he’d be fired or prosecuted, or get him to admit wrongdoing. Flynn allies howled over the revelations, arguing that he essentially had been set up in a perjury trap. In that interview, Flynn did not admit wrongdoing and instead was accused of lying about his contacts with the then-Russian ambassador – to which he pleaded guilty. –Fox News
Jensen, the U.S. attorney now working with Durham, was reportedly the one who recommended dropping the Flynn case to Barr.
Barr speaks
When asked whether he thought the FBI conspired against Flynn, Barr told CBS News on Thursday “I think, you know, that’s a question that really has to wait [for] an analysis of all the different episodes that occurred through the summer of 2016 and the first several months of President Trump’s administration,” adding that Durham is “still looking at all of this.”
“This is one particular episode, but we view it as part of a number of related acts … and we’re looking at the whole pattern of conduct,” Barr added, saying that they’re investigating actions taken before “and after … the election.”
And according to Fox’s source, Durham is investigating a “pattern of conduct” which includes lying to the FISA court to obtain warrants to spy on Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
President Trump has long-referred to the investigation as a “witch hunt” – which Barr and Durham are now untangling.
“Barr talks to Durham every day,” a source recently told Fox News. “The president has been briefed that the case is being pursued, and it’s serious.”
President Trump on Friday offered a vague, but ominous, warning as the Durham probe proceeds.
“It was a very dangerous situation what they did,” Trump said during an interview with “Fox & Friends” Friday. “These are dirty politicians and dirty cops and some horrible people and hopefully they’re going to pay a big price in the not too distant future.”
Trump was specifically reacting to newly released transcripts of interviews from the House Intelligence Committee’s Russia investigation that revealed top Obama officials acknowledged they knew of no “empirical evidence” of a conspiracy despite their concerns and suspicions. –Fox News
Durham’s probe is expected to wrap up by the end of the summer. Right as Trump is expected to face off against Joe Biden – who was VP while most of this was going on.