U.S. Attorney John Durham is a trustworthy actor whose findings from his inquiry into the Russia investigation will not be tainted by bias, according to a fellow U.S. attorney from a nearby state.
Breitbart’s Joel Pollak asked Andrew Lelling, the U.S. attorney for the District of Massachusetts, whether or not there is merit to claims that the criminal investigation being run by Durham, the top federal prosecutor in Connecticut, has become embroiled in a heavily politicized environment. President Trump and his allies argue the commander in chief was the target of a sabotage campaign conducted by federal law enforcement and intelligence officials. Meanwhile, Democrats and some legal and law enforcement veterans warn that Durham, who was appointed to the task by Attorney General William Barr, is setting up an “October Surprise” to disrupt the 2020 election.
“I know John Durham a little bit, the U.S. attorney in Connecticut. He is a longtime prosecutor within the Justice Department. I think he’s in probably about 30 years. He’s probably the least political prosecutor I’ve ever met,” Lelling said on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Sunday.
“So while I don’t know the underlying details or pros and cons of the investigation he’s doing, what I do know is that any accusation against Durham that he is acting out of political motives, I’m confident is false,” he added. “That guy is a prosecutor’s prosecutor. He is an absolute straight shooter.”
Appearing on a podcast last month, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff speculated that Barr would “protect corruption writ large of his boss” through Durham’s investigation. “What we have not yet had full visibility on is not Barr’s use of the shield to protect corruption writ large of his boss, Donald Trump, but the sword,” he said. “How he may be using the power of the Justice Department through Durham or others to go after the president’s enemies. And in many respects, that is a far greater, more serious abuse of the power of the Justice Department than his use of the shield.”
Trump has repeatedly called the Russia investigation a “witch hunt” intended to discredit his election in 2016, a proposition with which many Republicans agreed. “Bob Mueller knew the day that he walked in the door there was no evidence of the Trump campaign colluding with Russians,” Rep. Devin Nunes said last year.
During the Conservative Political Action Conference earlier this year, Nunes, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said he had confidence Durham’s investigation would “get to the bottom” of the questionable origins of the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign, which was wrapped into special counsel Robert Mueller’s effort.
As a result of Durham’s investigation, Kevin Clinesmith, a former FBI lawyer who worked on the Hillary Clinton emails investigation and the Trump-Russia inquiry, is poised to plead guilty on Wednesday to falsifying a document to obtain a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act renewal against Carter Page, a former Trump campaign aide. This development came to light after Barr teased the development during an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity.
“Kevin deeply regrets having altered the email,” Clinesmith’s attorney Emily Damrau told the Washington Examiner. “It was never his intent to mislead the court or his colleagues as he believed the information he relayed was accurate. But Kevin understands what he did was wrong and accepts responsibility.”
During a heated testimony in July, Barr said he will not prevent Durham from releasing his conclusive report before the November election, an answer which did not sit well among House Democrats.
“I think, in its core, the idea is, you don’t go after candidates,” Barr said in his testimony. “You don’t indict candidates or perhaps someone that’s sufficiently close to a candidate, that it’s essentially the same, you know, within a certain number of days before an election. But, you know, as I say, I don’t think any of the people whose actions are under review by Durham fall into that category.”
