Former John Durham Deputy Confirms Bill Barr Was Exactly As Corrupt As We All Thought He Was

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Yesterday Republicans spent hours accusing Attorney General Merrick Garland of weaponizing the Justice Department to target conservatives and protect Hunter Biden. They also accused him of supporting open borders, Mexican fentanyl cartels, oppression of Catholics, and of course nudist bikers.

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At the same time, one of Special Counsel John Durham’s former deputies was testifying that the Trump Justice Department was in fact weaponized to protect Donald Trump’s electoral prospects. Her views on bikers, clothed or otherwise, were not discussed at the hearing.

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The latest confirmation of bias at the Trump DOJ comes from Nora Dannehy, the former US Attorney for Connecticut, who is nominated for a seat on the state’s Supreme Court. Dannehy was formerly close with Durham, who was tapped by Bill Barr in 2019 to investigate the origins of the FBI investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties with Russia. In September of 2020, Dannehy abruptly resigned from the investigation, provoking questions about possible improprieties in the inquiry. And yesterday, those suspicions were confirmed.

“My conscience did not allow me to remain,” Dannehy told the Judiciary Committee of the Connecticut General Assembly, accusing the former US attorney general of inappropriately using the Durham investigation to exact revenge on Trump’s political opponents.

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In January of 2023, the New York Times published a blockbuster story revealing that the Durham investigation was infected by politics from the start. Publicly, Barr testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2019 that he believed the DOJ had “spied” on the Trump campaign. Privately, he rampaged through the executive branch, threatening retribution for the intelligence agencies if they didn’t turn over the proof of the perfidy he was sure had taken place.

In December of 2019 as DOJ Inspector General Anthony Horowitz prepared to release a report on the origins of the investigation, Durham unsuccessfully lobbied him to back off his conclusion that the Russia investigation had been appropriately predicated. Instead, Barr and Durham crafted their own statement undercutting Horowitz and accusing the FBI of opening the investigation “on the thinnest of suspicions.” 

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By summer of 2020, after countless scotches and field trips to go yell at our Italian and British allies, Barr and Durham had still come up empty. But with Trump agitating for Durham to produce something to help his electoral prospects, the pair crafted what the Times described as a “potential interim report centered on the Clinton campaign and F.B.I. gullibility or willful blindness.” 

This was the last straw for Dannehy, who objected to both the unsubstantiated conclusions of the document and the violation of longstanding DOJ policy against publicly commenting on an ongoing investigation.

“I had been taught and spent my entire career at Department of Justice conducting any investigation in an objective and apolitical manner,” she said, according to Politico.

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“I didn’t return to the Trump Department of Justice,” she added. “Politics never played a role in how I was expected to do my job.”

But Barr’s persistent interference in the investigation, along with Durham’s nakedly political goals, eventually forced Dannehy to resign.

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“In the spring and summer of 2020, I had growing concerns that this Russia investigation was not being conducted in that way. Attorney General Barr began to speak more publicly and specifically about the ongoing criminal investigation. I thought these public comments violated DOJ guidelines.”

After almost five years, the investigation finally tapped out in May with nothing but a bitter report full of dark implications and unconnected dots to show for it. Durham’s only two prosecutions led to immediate acquittals, and the plea deal he signed with a line DOJ lawyer was the result of information kicked up by Horowitz. It’s an ignominious end to a long, once-respectable career.

Meanwhile in Connecticut, Dannehy’s nomination was voted out of committee 30-4.

Nora Dannehy says Barr meddled in Trump-Russia probe [CT Mirror]
How Barr’s Quest to Find Flaws in the Russia Inquiry Unraveled [NYT]
Former prosecutor who quit Trump-Russia probe says she left over concerns with Barr [Politico]

Liz Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics and appears on the Opening Arguments podcast.

Topics

Bill Barr, Department of Justice, Donald Trump, Government, John Durham