John Durham DOJ probe ending without 'anything close' to results Donald Trump 'was seeking': report

In 2019, when Donald Trump was still president, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) assigned John H. Durham to investigate the FBI’s 2016 investigation of the Trump campaign’s interactions with Russia. Durham’s probe — an investigation of an investigation — appears to be winding down after three years. And according to New York Times reporters Katie Benner, Adam Goldman and Charlie Savage, it has yet to deliver “anything close to the results Mr. Trump was seeking.”

In an article published on September 14, the Times journalists report, “The grand jury that Mr. Durham has recently used to hear evidence has expired, and while he could convene another, there are currently no plans to do so, three people familiar with the matter said. Mr. Durham and his team are working to complete a final report by the end of the year, they said, and one of the lead prosecutors on his team is leaving for a job with a prominent law firm.”

Benner, Goldman and Savage add, “Over the course of his inquiry, Mr. Durham has developed cases against two people accused of lying to the FBI in relation to outside efforts to investigate purported Trump-Russia ties, but he has not charged any conspiracy or put any high-level officials on trial. The recent developments suggest that the chances of any more indictments are remote. After Mr. Durham’s team completes its report, it will be up to Attorney General Merrick B. Garland to decide whether to make its findings public.”

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When Durham’s probe was launched in 2019, Trump and his MAGA allies were hoping that it would reveal evidence of a sinister “Deep State” plot on the part of the Barack Obama-era DOJ officials who were still in charge during 2016’s presidential election. Trump supporters at Fox News and Fox Business reported on the probe with great excitement and anticipation. But Durham’s probe, after three years, hasn’t produced anything like that, according to the Times.

Benner, Goldman and Savage explain, “Mr. Durham and his team used a grand jury in Washington to indict Michael Sussmann, a prominent cybersecurity lawyer with ties to Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Mr. Sussmann was indicted last year on a charge of making a false statement to the FBI at a meeting in which he shared a tip about potential connections between computers associated with Mr. Trump and a Kremlin-linked Russian bank. Mr. Sussmann was acquitted of that charge at trial in May.”

In another case, the reporters note, “Mr. Durham’s team negotiated a plea deal with an FBI lawyer whom an inspector general had accused of doctoring an e-mail used in preparation for a wiretap renewal application. The plea deal resulted in no prison time.”

“Mr. Trump and his allies have long hoped that Mr. Durham would prosecute former FBI and intelligence officials responsible for the Russia investigation, known as Crossfire Hurricane,” Benner, Goldman and Savage observe. “Mr. Trump has described the investigation as a witch hunt and accused the FBI of spying on his presidential campaign. Last month, in the days after the FBI obtained a search warrant to seize boxes of classified and other government documents he was keeping at his resort in Florida, Mr. Trump used social media to amplify the unsubstantiated idea that Mr. Durham had uncovered a vast political conspiracy by the Obama Administration and the intelligence community to damage him.”

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