John Durham’s inquiry into the origins and conduct of the Trump-Russia investigation is chugging along during the Biden administration, with the special counsel arranging witness interviews and issuing subpoenas in recent months, according to a new report.
President Joe Biden asked all Senate-confirmed U.S. attorneys for their resignations in early February, with Durham being asked to step down as U.S. attorney for Connecticut but to stay on as special counsel. Durham resigned from his federal prosecutor post in late February but continues his investigation of the investigators.
A report from CNN published on Tuesday cited unnamed sources who said that after delays last year, pinned on the coronavirus pandemic, Durham’s investigators “are now arranging witness interviews” and grand jury subpoenas “also were being used to gather documents in recent months.”
During his confirmation hearing in February, now-Attorney General Merrick Garland declined to promise the Senate Judiciary Committee directly that he would protect Durham's investigation nor make his report public, though he said he didn't currently have any reason to think it wasn't the right move to keep the prosecutor from continuing his work.
The new report cited “people briefed on the matter” who said Durham’s investigation was scrutinizing the FBI’s “handling” of British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s discredited anti-Trump dossier as well as the FBI’s “disclosures” to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, where the bureau received a warrant followed by three renewals in 2016 and 2017 targeting former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
The outlet also cited “people briefed on the matter” in reporting that “some witnesses” have been asked about how information from Steele made it to the FBI through Perkins Coie, whose top elections lawyer, Marc Elias, served as general counsel for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, hired the opposition research firm Fusion GPS which then hired Steele, and met with the former MI6 agent in the lead-up to the election.
Mirror (Archived - https://mega.nz/file/CjokDTpJ#LxkLE_RJujgA7iN64P0ROG79JNi-H-W6HkqrHi3hIb0)
