News is breaking right now on John Durham’s probe into the origins of Russia investigation, saying it has now become a criminal investigation:
The Justice Department's review into the origins of the Russia probe is now a criminal investigation, a source says pic.twitter.com/MYKnHDmFaC
— Reuters (@Reuters) October 25, 2019
Here’s more from the NY Times:
Justice Department officials have shifted an administrative review of the Russia investigation closely overseen by Attorney General William P. Barr to a criminal inquiry, according to two people familiar with the matter. The move gives the prosecutor running it, John H. Durham, the power to subpoena for witness testimony and documents, to impanel a grand jury and to file criminal charges.
It was not clear what potential crime Mr. Durham is investigating, nor when the criminal investigation was prompted. A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment.
Some C.I.A. officials have retained criminal lawyers in anticipation of being interviewed. It was not clear whether Mr. Durham was scrutinizing other former top intelligence officials. Adm. Michael S. Rogers, the former director of the National Security Agency, declined to say whether he had spoken with Mr. Durham’s investigators.
The NY Times also tells Democrats how to respond to this:
The opening of a criminal investigation is likely to raise alarms that Mr. Trump is using the Justice Department to go after his perceived enemies. Mr. Trump fired James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director under whose watch agents opened the Russia inquiry, and has long assailed other top former law enforcement and intelligence officials as partisans who sought to block his election.
Mr. Trump has made clear that he sees the typically independent Justice Department as a tool to be wielded against his political enemies. That view factors into the impeachment investigation against him, as does his long obsession with the origins of the Russia inquiry. House Democrats are examining in part whether his pressure on Ukraine to open investigations into theories about the 2016 election constituted an abuse of power.
Trump is damned one way or damned the other by Democrats. He just can’t win with these people who loathe him and want to see him lose in 2020. They have to vilify everything that comes from his administration and make it an impeachable offense. How pathetic.
In any event, I think this is great news, as it seems that Barr and Durham have seen evidence of criminal activity and want the ability to prosecute. That makes the interviews that we’ve heard Durham wants to conduct with Brennan and Clapper all the more interesting!
