U.S. Attorney John Durham is focused on the Justice Department’s handling of its case against retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn as part of his review of the Trump-Russia investigation, according to a new report.
The federal prosecutor from Connecticut, handpicked by Attorney General William Barr last year to lead an investigation into the launch of Crossfire Hurricane and the actions taken by law enforcement and the intelligence community related to Russian interference, has honed in on recent revelations in the Flynn case, according to sources cited by Fox News on Friday. One source noted that Durham’s team is “building a very serious case.”
The report comes after the release of FBI records on Thursday that have been touted by Flynn’s lawyer, Sidney Powell, as exculpatory evidence heretofore concealed from the defense team. They suggest that then-FBI agent Peter Strzok and others in the FBI’s leadership stopped the bureau from closing its investigation into Flynn in early January 2017 after investigators had uncovered “no derogatory information” on him. Emails from later that month show that Strzok, along with then-FBI lawyer Lisa Page and several others, sought out ways to continue investigating Flynn.
The sources said, “Durham has seen all of this already,” and the revelations “could be sufficient for some charges against agents.” One source noted that “it’s a crime to present under oath false or misleading information” and “not to mention obstruction of justice.”
Flynn is fighting to dismiss the government’s case against him. He pleaded guilty in December 2017 for lying to investigators about his conversations with Russian diplomat Sergey Kislyak on sanctions on Russia and a United Nations resolution on Israel. But he switched legal teams last year and told the court in January that he is “innocent of this crime.” He filed to withdraw his guilty plea after the Justice Department asked the judge to sentence Flynn to up to six months in prison — though afterward, the department said probation would also be appropriate. Flynn’s team is pressing for the dismissal of his case, arguing that the FBI unfairly treated Flynn.
Barr selected Jeffrey Jensen, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri, to help review the Flynn case. Jensen has been working with the Justice Department to turn over unearthed documents to Flynn’s legal team.
One source claimed that “Barr talks to Durham every day,” and that “the president has been briefed that the case is being pursued, and it’s serious.” That same source said, “They’ve asked the president to say nothing about it and not screw it up,” saying that “he is laying back for a change.”
Trump told reporters on Thursday he “would certainly consider” bringing Flynn back into his administration. He also said he did not think he should have to pardon him because his former national security adviser was “in the process of being exonerated.”
“The revelations of corruption by the FBI to intentionally frame Gen. Flynn for crimes the FBI manufactured piles on with each new production of documents,” Powell said on Thursday. “Unequivocally, the documents prove the egregious extent to which those involved violated the constitutional rights of the National Security Advisor of the United States of America and a military hero.”
Another source told Fox News that it is “disturbing to Durham” that “there weren’t any whistleblowers” from the FBI or Justice Department in the early stages of the Trump-Russia investigation.
Durham is reportedly looking into media leaks that dominated the Trump transition period and the early days of the Trump administration, including a Jan. 12, 2017, article in the Washington Post by columnist David Ignatius, which said Flynn “cultivates close Russian contacts” and cited a “senior U.S. government official” who revealed Flynn had talked to Kislyak on Dec. 29, 2016, the same day President Barack Obama expelled 35 Russian officials. It is likely that this revelation and subsequent leaks about the alleged contents of Flynn’s discussions were based on classified information. Ignatius also raised the possibility that Flynn had violated the Logan Act, a rarely enforced law that former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, Strzok, and other Obama holdovers considered using against Flynn.
Then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions confirmed on Fox News in 2018 that he believed these “leaks of classified documents” were “a violation of the law.” Sessions said the Justice Department was “pursuing it aggressively.”
Former FBI Director James Comey admitted he took advantage of the chaos in the early days of Trump’s administration when he sent agent Strzok and another FBI agent to talk to Flynn. Records released on Wednesday included handwritten notes from Crossfire Hurricane leader Bill Priestap on the day the FBI interviewed Flynn, showing doubts about the strategy being pursued by others in the bureau.
“I agreed yesterday that we shouldn’t show Flynn [REDACTED] if he didn’t admit,” the FBI official wrote, “I thought about it last night, and I believe we should rethink this.”
“What is our goal? Truth/Admission or to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired?” the FBI official added.
A source said the Durham team’s thought process is that “if they don’t have it, they’re not going to bring it … but they think they’ve got it.”
Earlier this month, Barr said, “My own view is that the evidence shows that we’re not dealing with just mistakes or sloppiness — there is something far more troubling here, and we’re going to get to the bottom of it.” The attorney general added that “if people broke the law, and we can establish that with the evidence, they will be prosecuted.”
