March 14, 2021- 9:00 p.m
It will be interesting to watch and see how many “uncomfortable” Department of Justice and FBI investigations into Obama-Biden administration and Biden family foreign influence peddling scandals will ever be released by a Democrat-controlled White House and Congress.
For example, now that the election is over, there is no longer any reason for U.S. Attorney John Durham to continue to withhold an interim report regarding the status of his special council probe into Obama-Biden administration-authorized FBI and DOJ spying on the incoming and ongoing Trump administration.
Repeated indications that Durham’s probe would wrap up to offer long-awaited conclusions before the election were reportedly disrupted by the intervention of new discoveries and COVID-19 related investigatory delays.
Then, just weeks before the election, former Attorney General William Barr had alerted Congress by letter on Dec. 1 that he planned to grant special council status to the investigation in order to provide Durham and his team “with the assurance that they could complete their work, without regard to the outcome of the election.”
Under the same regulation used in May 2017 to name Robert Mueller as special counsel to investigate alleged and ultimately disproved Trump administration “Russia collusion,” the appointment was intended to make it more politically problematic for a prospective Biden-Harris administration to sack Durham, or to require their new attorney general to quash his probe.
Under DOJ regulations, special counsels aren’t subject to “day-to-day supervision,” and can only be removed for “misconduct, dereliction of duty, conflict of interest, or for other good causes, including violation of department policies.”
Barr’s order stated that Durham’s special council mandate includes investigating whether “any federal official, employee, or any other person or entity” violated laws in the “intelligence, counter-intelligence, or law enforcement activities” directed at the 2016 campaigns or individuals associated with the Trump administration.
Regardless of AG Barr’s good intentions, the bad news is that we can fully expect a President Biden and his administration appointees to bury outcomes that reflect poorly or criminally upon their own actions.
Biden’s AG pick, Merrick Garland, will be under pressure to protect reputations by shutting down Durham before he can issue indictments or an embarrassing report.
This is, after all, the same former Vice President Joe Biden who reportedly suggested charging incoming National Security Advisor Gen.
Michael Flynn with charges of foreign collusion under an obscure 1799 “Logan Act” during an early 2017 Oval office meeting with President Obama and FBI Director James Comey.Although FBI officials who interviewed Gen.
Flynn regarding his activities believed he was truthful and innocent of wrongdoing, and despite the government’s decision to drop charges against him, this American patriot was nevertheless bankrupted and defamed through resulting legal processes.
So far as “justice and accountability” is concerned, the only person ever brought under criminal charges by Durham’s team so far was former FBI attorney Kevin Clinesmith who pleaded guilty to altering a key document in Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) filings related to one-time Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
Unlike Gen. Flynn, FISA judge James Boasberg gave Clinesmith a mere slap on the wrist sentence: 12 months of probation and 400 hours of community service.
