WASHINGTON (AP) — The special counsel who investigated the FBI’s probe into ties between Russia and Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign found himself at the center of a heated political row when he appeared before a congressional committee on Wednesday, with Democrats denouncing his investigation and Republicans arguing that its findings helped demonstrate an anti-Trump bias within law enforcement.
John Durham, the Justice Department special counsel who recently completed his report, testified before the House Judiciary Committee in a hearing that unfolded against the backdrop of a 37-count indictment against Trump on charges of illegally retain classified documents.
Despite roughly six hours of testimony, the hearing broke little ground. Under questioning from Republicans, he repeated many of the strongest damning findings in his 306-page report and also faced criticism from Democrats for a four-year investigation that produced just one conviction and failed to Trump’s claims that he would expose “crime.” of the century.”
The hearing highlighted well-established mistakes by law enforcement during the Trump-Russia investigation, but Durham’s appearance had more contemporary political resonance in light of the criminal case against Trump and efforts by the former president and some Republican allies to undermine public trust. to the FBI
“They will never stop. Seven years of attacking Trump is scary enough, but what’s more frightening, any one of us could be next,” said committee chairman Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio.
Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Texas, said Americans believe there is a “two-tier system of justice” that, he said, was “terrifying.”
“Here we are seven years later, still talking about President Trump and this Democrat-made scandal,” Hunt said.
Democrats, meanwhile, went after Durham and his investigation on personal terms: Rep. Ted Lieu of California derided him for behaving like a “partisan hack.” They accused Republicans of using Durham’s appearance as a pretext to criticize the FBI for its continued scrutiny of Trump and to distract attention from the former president’s ongoing legal troubles.
“That’s why you’re here today, not because of anything that happened in 2016,” New York Rep. Jerrold Nadler, the committee’s top Democrat, told Durham.
Durham, who was appointed by then-Attorney General William Barr to review the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation, tried to keep the hearing’s focus on its findings.
He noted that his review found that FBI investigators looking into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia ignored exculpatory evidence, used a largely discredited opposition investigative dossier to obtain a surveillance warrant for a former Trump campaign aide, they withheld key information from judges and had no adequate basis to open a full investigation in the first place.
He said the errors in the investigation were notable because the investigation was not a “regular investigation” but a “presidential campaign.”
He said current and former FBI agents had personally apologized to him for the way the Russia investigation was conducted.
“It’s so sensitive that it could affect the outcome of a presidential election and the future of the nation,” Durham said. “One would expect that the discipline that had been followed would have been higher than ever. And that didn’t happen here. There’s a kind of analytical rigor, the discipline in how we investigate criminal matters, that was largely absent here.”
Democrats repeatedly referred the hearing to Durham’s record, the abrupt and publicly unexplained departure of its top deputy and the fact that many of its most serious findings were revealed years earlier in an inspector general’s report. general of the Department of Justice. His investigation resulted only in a guilty plea from a little-known FBI attorney, a case referred to his office by the inspector general. And the two cases Durham’s team took to trial ended in quick jury acquittals.
In a tense exchange, Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., sought to portray Durham as a prosecutor without legitimacy and integrity trying to protect Trump and his campaign for the presidency.
“You had a good reputation, that’s why the two Democrats supported you,” Cohen said, referring to Connecticut’s Democratic senators who had backed Durham’s nomination as U.S. attorney. “But the longer you hang on to Mr. Barr and this report that Mr. Barr gave you as special counsel, your reputation will be damaged, as the reputation of everyone involved with Donald Trump will be bad”.
Durham replied, “My concern for my reputation is with the people I love, my family and my Lord, and I am perfectly comfortable with my reputation with them, sir.”
The GOP’s animosity toward the Justice Department was further fueled by Tuesday’s announcement that President Joe Biden’s son Hunter will likely avoid prison in a deal on tax and gun charges. Jordan tweeted that it was a “DOUBLE STANDARD OF JUSTICE.”
The bureau also faces bipartisan criticism over how it handles intelligence gathered electronically under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows spy agencies to collect phone calls and mail foreign electronic for their investigations.
A recently declassified surveillance court opinion found that the FBI had conducted thousands of unsupported searches on Americans, including inquiries related to the January 6 uprising and the 2020 protests after the killing of George Floyd.
Previewing Durham’s private meeting Tuesday with the Intelligence Committee, Ohio Rep. Mike Turner, the panel’s chairman, alleged last week that the FBI “went off the rails” and harmed the credibility of the justice system.
“The rules and the laws need to be changed so that these mechanisms cannot be used again in this way to really harm the American public,” he said.
Connecticut Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the panel, said after the committee meeting that Durham did not recommend any changes to existing law, but discussed at length the problems with the report and the handling of politically charged investigations. sensitive
“Our hearing was not political. Nobody was looking to score points,” Himes said. “People asked questions that indicated their political affiliation, but that’s because they were doing their due diligence on the things they were concerned about.”
FBI Director Chris Wray has acknowledged mistakes in the Trump-Russia investigation. In a statement Tuesday, the office said it had “already implemented dozens of corrective actions, which have been in place for some time.”
Durham’s report “reinforces the importance of ensuring that the FBI continues to do its work with the rigor, objectivity and professionalism that the American people deserve and rightly expect,” the statement said.
