The secretive Justice Department inquiry into the Trump-Russia investigation’s origins now includes former CIA Director John Brennan, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former FBI special agent Peter Strzok, and British ex-spy Christopher Steele.
U.S. Attorney John Durham, whose investigative portfolio recently expanded to include events from the launch of the inquiry in 2016 through the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller in 2017, has taken overseas fact-finding trips. But Durham’s focus on the actions taken by specific individuals makes his mission look like it could transform into a criminal investigation. And the line of questioning Durham has taken with potential witnesses — some in line with claims made by President Trump and other Republicans — puts his efforts into sharper focus.
Brennan, a strident Trump critic, told NBC News that Durham wants to interview him and Clapper as Durham looks into the intelligence community’s actions as it examined possible ties between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin. Brennan and Clapper led the Obama administration’s intelligence agencies when some Republicans allege the CIA illicitly ensnared members of the Trump campaign using informants, though Democrats have dismissed this. Brennan and Clapper played leadership roles in the intelligence community’s assessment of Russian election interference in 2016.
Brennan told NBC News he was “very comfortable with everything” he had done and complained he didn’t know what the inquiry’s legal basis was, calling Durham’s actions “bizarre.”
But Durham’s actions aren’t out of left field. Attorney General William Barr upset Democrats in April when he said “spying did occur” on the Trump campaign, and President Trump gave Barr “full and complete authority to declassify information” related to the origins of the Trump-Russia inquiry in May. Barr selected Durham to be his right-hand man soon after.
Durham also asked about Strzok both writing and signing the documentation which launched the FBI’s Trump-Russia counterintelligence investigation in late July 2016 and launching the investigation over a weekend, an unusual series of actions. The New York Times cited former officials who defended the now-fired special agent, saying he spoke with leaders at the FBI before opening the investigation and did so on a Sunday because former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe instructed him to quickly fly to London to speak with two Australian diplomats who provided the information that prompted the investigation.
Australian diplomat Alexander Downer tipped off the bureau that Trump campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos told him the Russians had damaging information on Hillary Clinton. Papadopoulos was allegedly told about this Russian “dirt” by the mysterious Maltese academic Joseph Mifsud, whom Mueller said had ties to the Russian government, but whom some Republicans claim has ties to Western intelligence. Downer was prompted to tell the FBI about his conversation with Papadopoulos by Wikileaks’ release of Democratic National Committee emails.
Durham has not yet interviewed Strzok, McCabe, former FBI Director James Comey, or former FBI general counsel James Baker.
Durham is speaking to witnesses about Steele, the former MI6 agent whose dossier was used to obtain secret surveillance warrants against Trump campaign associate Carter Page, and Durham wants to know why the FBI used unverified information in its filings with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, according to the New York Times. Sources reportedly said Durham expressed skepticism about the use of Steele’s dossier and worried the FBI exaggerated Steele’s importance to obtain the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants.
The 412 pages of redacted FISA documents released in 2018 show the DOJ and the FBI made extensive use of Steele’s salacious dossier. The opposition research firm Fusion GPS was hired by Clinton’s campaign and the DNC through the Perkins Coie law firm, and Fusion GPS then hired Steele. Clinton’s campaign received briefings about Fusion GPS’s findings during 2016, and watchdog groups allege the campaign purposely concealed its actions from the Federal Election Commission. Steele’s Democratic benefactors, his desire for Trump to lose to Clinton, and the flaws with his dossier weren’t revealed to the FISA court.
DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s investigation into FISA abuse wrapped up in September, and the New York Times reported Horowitz reviewed an assessment that MI6 handed over to the FBI which said the former spy “was honest and persistent but sometimes showed questionable judgment in pursuing targets that others viewed as a waste of time.” Horowitz’s report is expected in the coming days.
Durham also intends to interview CIA analysts and officials involved in the Russia investigation, prompting some to seek legal representation, and NBC News reported tension between the CIA and the DOJ over what classified information he should have access to. Durham has already talked to two dozen current and former FBI agents as part of his effort, according to the New York Times.
DOJ spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said the department was exploring the extent to which “a number of countries” played a role in the Trump-Russia investigation, and Barr and Durham reached out to the United Kingdom, Italy, and Australia. The DOJ has taken efforts to distance itself from the actions of Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, whose endeavors in Ukraine are a central focus of the House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry and whose associates, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, were arrested in New York.
