R&I – TxPAT***
A National Security Division official who publicly criticized John Durham’s special counsel investigation before joining the Justice Department has “nothing whatsoever to do with” the inquiry, Attorney General Merrick
The answer provided to Congress offers some clarity to the situation after Republican senators demanded in June that Garland respond to the “bias” Susan Hennessey, a former NSA attorney, showed in comments about Durham and the focus of his work, the investigation into alleged tied between former President Donald Trump‘s 2016 campaign and Russia, before she was picked for the DOJ role in May.
Sens. Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson said this summer that Hennessey “has repeatedly and publicly expressed partisan comments about previous and current investigations including the Justice Department inspector general’s review of Crossfire Hurricane and Special Counsel John Durham’s ongoing investigation, raising concerns that she is conflicted and should be recused from such investigations.”
The conservative Washington Free Beacon bankrolled Fusion GPS to investigate Trump and other Republican candidates during the 2016 GOP primaries but dropped the project after Trump locked up the nomination. But further funding for their research came from Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee, through the Perkins Coie law firm, and Steele was hired to compile his now-discredited dossier only after the conservative political website backed out.
“If reports that a FISA order was obtained are accurate, that means that the FBI has developed a lot more evidence than just this private dossier on the point,” Hennessey wrote.
DOJ inspector general Michael Horowitz said Steele’s dossier played a “central and essential” role in seeking FISA surveillance and FBI interviews of Steele’s primary subsource “raised significant questions about the reliability of the Steele election reporting.”
Attorney General William Barr quietly appointed Durham to be special counsel in October 2020 after assigning the then-U.S. attorney to the task in May 2019. Garland initially declined to promise during his confirmation hearing in early 2021 that he would protect Durham’s investigation or make his report public
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