Barr’s DOJ Spying Probe Expands Amid Trump Impeachment Inquiry
Justice Department Opens Probe Into Possible Spying on Trump
(Bloomberg) -- The Justice Department’s opening of a criminal investigation into the FBI and CIA’s conduct in probing Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign heightens the tension around the separate impeachment inquiry led by House Democrats.
John Durham, the federal prosecutor who Attorney General William Barr named to lead the Justice Department probe in May, is looking into whether Trump’s campaign was illegally spied on. Durham now has the authority to convene a grand jury and issue subpoenas to compel witnesses to testify or turn over documents, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The decision adds momentum to the president’s push to show that a “deep state” cabal has been out to get him from the start of his run for the White House. Trump and his allies have long contended that the investigation by the FBI and Justice Department into Russian interference in the election originated with false accusations and was motivated by anti-Trump bias. After Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, the inquiry was turned over to Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
On Friday, Trump told reporters at the White House, “I think you’re going to see a lot of really bad things” come out of Durham’s probe.
Trump gave Barr “full and complete authority” in May to declassify information in the inquiry and ordered intelligence agencies to cooperate. “They tried to do a take-down, and you can’t do that,” he said at the time.
‘Deep State’
The escalation of the inquiry, which was first reported by the New York Times, comes as the impeachment investigation in the House has become a growing threat to Trump’s presidency. Trump has said that evidence that he withheld aid to Ukraine to force that country’s president to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and other Democrats is also the work of “the deep state” that opposes his policies.
Durham, the U.S. attorney for Connecticut, is a respected career prosecutor known for investigating complicated, politically charged cases, including the CIA’s past torture programs. It’s unclear what potential crimes he’s now investigating.
A former federal law enforcement official who knows Durham well said he’s not aware that the prosecutor has done anything improper or politically motivated and assumes he opened the criminal inquiry for a legitimate reason. Durham’s team includes two former FBI agents, according to the official, who asked not to be identified discussing the sensitive investigation.
Even before Durham received his new powers, Democrats had expressed concern that Trump wanted to weaponize the Justice Department to further his political aims.
‘Political Revenge’
Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and one of the leaders of the impeachment investigation, and Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler released a joint statement late Thursday in response to news about the probe turning into a criminal inquiry.
“These reports, if true, raise profound new concerns that the Department of Justice under Attorney General William Barr has lost its independence and become a vehicle for President Trump’s political revenge,” the congressmen said.
Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Friday that the panel “is wrapping up a three-year bipartisan investigation, and we’ve found nothing remotely justifying this.” He said Barr “needs to come before Congress and explain himself.”
But Representative Doug Collins of Georgia, the top Republican on the Judiciary panel, said in a statement Friday that Durham’s probe is “an effort to deliver truth and accountability.”
“If Mr. Durham finds that crimes were committed, I have confidence that he will pursue justice and help restore America’s confidence in its premier law enforcement agency,” Collins said.
Durham, who heads the U.S. attorney’s office in Connecticut, has been doing a review into U.S. counterintelligence activities conducted by the CIA, FBI and other agencies before and after the 2016 election, especially related to Trump’s campaign and the early days of his presidency.
Barr told the Senate Judiciary Committee in May that he was concerned there may have been improper “spying” on Trump’s campaign, though he added at the time he didn’t have any concrete evidence. Shortly after the hearing, Barr appointed Durham to lead the review.
Since then, Barr has displayed a strong personal interest in advancing the probe, including traveling twice in recent months to ask Italian intelligence officials for help. He also has been in contact with Australian and British officials.
FBI and CIA officials have said that they conducted legal and court-authorized surveillance when they learned of the Russian interference. But Trump and his allies contend that the surveillance -- which they call spying -- was an illegal operation to damage his campaign and presidency.
“Durham is by all accounts an honorable man with a long career of public service,” said Harry Sandick, a former assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. “But the idea that the attorney general is flying to Italy, that’s unusual. It raises eyebrows. In light of how the Mueller report was handled by the department, I think that people are rightly concerned.”
A more benign explanation for turning Durham’s investigation into a criminal probe is that the prosecutor has run into resistance getting current or former U.S. officials to talk and wants to use a grand jury to compel testimony, said Sandick, a partner at the law firm Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP.
“You don’t need much to open a criminal investigation,” he said.
--With assistance from Billy House and Jordan Fabian.
To contact the reporter on this story: Chris Strohm in Washington at cstrohm1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Kevin Whitelaw at kwhitelaw@bloomberg.net, Larry Liebert, Justin Blum
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