Attorney General William Barr met with U.S. Attorney John Durham, who is conducting a review of the Russia investigation, only a few days after special counsel Robert Mueller ended his inquiry.
Newly released documents detail 18 meetings beginning in late March 2019 through mid-October 2019 between Barr’s office and the federal prosecutor from Connecticut, who, to this day, is leading the high-profile inquiry into the conduct of law enforcement and intelligence officials before and after President Trump won the 2016 election.
The records, released through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by the left-leaning government watchdog group American Oversight and first reported on by CNN, show just how early Barr was in constant communication with Durham as the prosecutor geared up for a deep-dive into the Russia investigation that Trump and his allies dubbed a partisan “witch hunt.”
The first meeting took place in the attorney general’s office three days after Mueller concluded his two-year inquiry into Russian election interference and allegations of collusion between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign. The second one occurred just after the Justice Department’s monthlong classification review process related to Mueller’s 448-page report.
Mueller concluded that the Russians interfered in the 2016 election in a “sweeping and systematic fashion,” but he “did not establish” any criminal conspiracy between Trump’s campaign and Russia. He also laid out 10 instances of possible obstruction of justice, which Democrats saw as a road map for impeachment.
The Justice Department’s rollout and classification of Mueller’s report remains contentious among Barr’s critics. A federal judge questioned Barr’s credibility earlier this year over the attorney general’s memo summarizing the baseline conclusions of Mueller’s report, released during the redaction process. House Democrats told the Supreme Court this week they want access to the Mueller report’s secretive grand jury materials for an ongoing impeachment investigation against Trump.
Barr became attorney general in February 2019 as Mueller was wrapping up his investigation. The Mueller report was submitted to the Justice Department on March 22, 2019, and made public, with redactions, on April 18. Within that one-month time frame, Barr testified on April 10 before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee, saying, “I think spying did occur,” but “the question is whether it was adequately predicated.” Shortly after Mueller’s report was released, Barr told the Senate Judiciary Committee on May 1, “I do have people in the department helping me review the activities over the summer of 2016.” The New York Times first reported on Barr picking Durham for the follow-up inquiry on May 13, 2019.
The newly disclosed documents show key players involved in the attorney general’s office’s 2019 meetings with Durham as Mueller’s investigation came to a close.
The first was held in Barr’s office on March 25, 2019, three days after Mueller’s investigation ended. “Required attendees” included: Durham; Theresa Watson, Barr’s director of scheduling; Brian Rabbitt, who was Barr’s chief of staff before taking a senior role in the DOJ’s criminal division in 2020; and William Levi, one of Barr’s counselors who became his new chief of staff this year. Also listed were Matthew Nichols, David Gerritzen, and Arlene Louton-Brown — officials from the Justice Management Division, which provides advice to senior officials. Seth DuCharme, then-counselor to Barr on criminal and national security matters and who was appointed principal associate deputy attorney general in December, was the point of contact for that meeting and many others.
While Mueller’s report was being scrutinized at Main Justice, DuCharme sent an email to DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz on April 12, 2019, copying Durham and two redacted figures. DuCharme said: “Michael, thank you for your time this afternoon and the opportunity for me to explain what John [Durham] and [REDACTED] and I are working on.” He suggested a meeting early the next week, and Horowitz agreed. The DOJ watchdog was investigating alleged abuses of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act since March 2018 and released his report in December 2019.
Horowitz’s report criticized the Justice Department and the FBI for at least 17 “significant errors and omissions” related to the FISA warrants against Trump campaign associate Carter Page and for the bureau’s reliance on British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s flawed dossier. Steele put his research together at the behest of the opposition research firm Fusion GPS, funded by Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee through Perkins Coie. Barr and Durham quibbled with Horowitz’s conclusion that Crossfire Hurricane was launched with proper predication.
The second in-person meeting in Barr’s office happened on April 25, 2019, one week after the Mueller report was made public, and its “required attendees” included Durham, Watson, Rabbitt, DuCharme, and Barr’s deputy chief of staff John Moran.
A meeting in the attorney general’s conference room on April 30, 2019, was held to “prep” for a redacted law enforcement matter. Durham, Rabbit, DuCharme, and a member of Durham’s Connecticut office, whose identity is redacted, were listed as required attendees. The same officials were also present at a May 14, 2019, meeting. Durham and Rabbit met again in Barr’s office on May 22, 2019. The documents show a June 4, 2019, meeting in Barr’s office was attended by Durham, Rabbit, DuCharme, and the unnamed federal prosecutor.
A June 26, 2019, meeting at the attorney general’s office was attended by Durham, Rabbitt, DuCharme, and Timothy Shea, who was then a senior counselor to Barr. Shea became interim U.S. attorney for the district in January 2020 and was named acting head of the Drug Enforcement Administration earlier this week.
Durham, Rabbit, and DuCharme met again in Barr’s office on July 11, 2019. The next day, Barr called Durham. Durham, Rabbitt, and DuCharme met in the attorney general’s office again on July 16, 2019.
Mueller testified before the House Judiciary and House Intelligence Committees on July 24, 2019, giving a shaky performance that Democratic House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said came as a surprise him.
Durham and DOJ officials met in Barr’s office three more times in August 2019 along with a phone call that month, followed by two in-person meetings in Barr’s office and one call in September. The latest meeting provided through the FOIA request occurred in Barr’s office on October 17, 2019, attended by Durham, Rabbitt, DuCharme, and a redacted member of the Justice Management Division.
Earlier this week, Barr offered a glimpse into where Durham’s investigation stands.
“Not every abuse of power, no matter how outrageous, is necessarily a federal crime,” Barr said during a Monday press conference. “Now, as to President Obama and Vice President Biden, whatever their level of involvement, based on the information I have today, I don’t expect Mr. Durham’s work will lead to a criminal investigation of either man. Our concern over potential criminality is focused on others.”
