A prosecutor working with U.S. Attorney John Durham on the criminal inquiry into the Russia investigation has resigned.
“We can confirm that Nora Dannehy has resigned from the Department of Justice and have no further comment,” Thomas Carson, a spokesman for Durham, told the Washington Examiner on Friday. The Justice Department declined to comment.
Dannehy’s departure was first reported by the Hartford Courier, which said she informed colleagues at the U.S. attorney’s office in New Haven about her resignation in an email Thursday evening. Unnamed colleagues of Dannehy told the outlet that her decision was based in part on concern about political pressure to produce a report before the November election, although her farewell email did not mention it. Associates of Durhams, described as “Durham allies,” are said to have the belief that the Russia investigation group will be disbanded if President Trump loses the contest.
The duration of the investigation might also have been a factor in Dannehy’s exit. When Dannehy joined Durham’s team in Washington for the review of the Russia investigation in the spring of 2019, she was told to expect an assignment that would last between six months and a year. The inquiry has now been going on for a year and a half, and Democrats and national security veterans have been raising concerns about it disrupting the 2020 election, which is less than two months away.
Dannehy worked with Durham at the U.S. attorney’s office for decades but left a decade ago to join the private sector in the defense industry. She came back to the fold and joined the so-called investigation of the investigators at Durham’s behest.
Attorney General William Barr has said the two main goals of Durham’s investigation are sussing out the truth and exploring possible criminal charges. Only one person, Kevin Clinesmith, has been indicted in Durham’s inquiry so far. The former FBI lawyer, who played a role in both the investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s improper private email server and the Russia investigation, pleaded guilty to a false statements charge for fraudulently altering a CIA email to state that former Trump campaign associate Carter Page was “not a source,” when he had, in fact, been an operational contact for the agency.
Last week, Barr denied that he is being pressured by Trump in his handling of Durham’s inquiry and claimed that any actions taken won’t affect the 2020 election. Barr has stressed that the Durham review will abide by Justice Department guidelines and has repeatedly said that despite urging from Trump, former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Joe Biden, who is now the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee, are not under criminal investigation.
In what has been dubbed the “Obamagate” controversy, Trump’s supporters believe top officials in the Obama administration sought to sabotage Trump’s candidacy in 2016 and later his presidency, and many of them have called for indictments. Democrats have raised concerns about the public release of Durham’s findings or indictments during an election and have warned of a possible politicized “October surprise.”
Dannehy has the distinction of being the first female U.S. attorney for Connecticut, holding the top spot from 2008 to 2010. During her time as a prosecutor in Connecticut, she helped send a state treasurer and a governor to prison for political corruption. And she has worked on sensitive investigations before, being tapped by then-Attorney General Michael Mukasey in 2006 to investigate whether there was improper political motivation behind the dismissal of nine U.S. attorneys in 2006.
Durham’s team also includes the former chief of the Violent Crimes and Narcotics Trafficking Section for the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, D.C., Anthony Scarpelli, who joined Durham earlier this year. Another longtime assistant U.S. attorney in Connecticut, Neeraj Patel, was also tapped to assist Durham. Andrew DeFilippis, an assistant U.S. attorney in Manhattan, was also roped into Durham’s effort.
Durham, whose official current title is special attorney to the attorney general, is widely regarded as a fair and dogged prosecutor, famously leading the prosecution of mobsters, including a series of high-profile convictions of the notorious New England Mafia. His corruption investigation of former Connecticut Gov. John Rowland resulted in the Republican finding himself behind bars following a guilty plea.
Durham, the top federal prosecutor from Connecticut, was appointed by then-Attorney General Janet Reno in 1999 to investigate the corrupt connections between law enforcement officers in Boston with James “Whitey” Bulger and other associates of the Irish mob’s Winter Hill Gang.
Durham also took on a sensitive and controversial investigation into the actions taken by members of the U.S. government when Mukasey appointed him special prosecutor in 2008 to look into the CIA’s destruction of tapes of detainee interrogations. Durham was then selected by Attorney General Eric Holder to conduct a broader investigation into the CIA’s so-called enhanced interrogation techniques.
Barr has made it clear that Durham is investigating how the FBI’s inquiry, code-named Crossfire Hurricane, was opened. The FBI’s counterintelligence investigation into ties between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia was wrapped into special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, which concluded in April 2019 that Russia interfered in 2016 in a “sweeping and systematic fashion” but “did not establish” any criminal conspiracy between Russia and Trump’s campaign.
Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz concluded in December that the FBI’s investigation had “sufficient factual predication,” but Barr and Durham both stated that they disagreed.
“Based on the evidence collected to date, and while our investigation is ongoing, last month we advised the inspector general that we do not agree with some of the report’s conclusions as to predication and how the FBI case was opened,” Durham said in a rare statement.
Horowitz’s report criticized the Justice Department and the FBI for at least 17 “significant errors and omissions” related to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants against Page and for the bureau’s reliance on the Democratic-funded discredited dossier compiled by British ex-spy Christopher Steele.
