Will Durham investigation of Russia probe hamper Biden presidency?
Former Assistant Attorney General John Yoo weighs in with his analysis on 'Your World.'
EXCLUSIVE: Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe on Thursday urged President-elect Joe Biden to allow Special Counsel John Durham's investigation into the origins of the Russia probe to run its course, while saying he hopes there will be "folks held accountable that should be."
Ratcliffe, during an interview with Fox News, also indicated that there are “a significant number of documents” not within the intelligence community, but that “relate to the counterintelligence investigation at the FBI and at the Justice Department” that have not yet been declassified.
“I think it is possible that some of those would be, and should be,” Ratcliffe said.
Attorney General William Barr made public Tuesday that U.S. Attorney from Connecticut John Durham, who has been investigating the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation, was appointed in October as special counsel to continue his probe in the next administration.
BARR APPOINTS JOHN DURHAM SPECIAL COUNSEL TO INVESTIGATE ORIGINS OF RUSSIA PROBE
“My hope is that John Durham, with all of the documents that I have provided in connection with his investigation from the intelligence community, will provide the full accounting and for there to be folks held accountable that should be,” Ratcliffe told Fox News.
He added: “I certainly hope that whoever is running the Justice Department in 2021 will allow these answers to be fully accounted for before the American people.”
Ratcliffe said the questions have “already been answered.”
“Was there an abuse of power? Legal authorities violated at the FISA court? Did crimes occur? An FBI lawyer has pled guilty in connection with all of that — so the answer is, it happened,” Ratcliffe said.“The question now is how far, and how deep, is it?” Ratcliffe said.
Ratcliffe, during his tenure as director of National Intelligence, has declassified a slew of documents, which allies of President Trump have cast as significant, citing their content as proof that the investigation into the president and his 2016 campaign was baseless.
“The documents I have declassified reveal that there are folks in the Biden — or, the Obama-Biden administration, senior national security folks that were aware of the fact that there was no collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign — no intelligence that supported that,” Ratcliffe told Fox News.
"Remember, we were told, the idea, when I first raised the issue of abuse at the FISA court, officials said ideas of FISA abuse is a bunch of nonsense, but now very clearly that's proven to be the case — those violations did occur," Ratcliffe said. "And all of those national security officials in the Obama-Biden administration, like [former FBI Director James] Comey and [Former Deputy FBI Director Andrew] McCabe and [Former Deputy Attorney General Sally] Yates and others are now running the opposite direction saying oh, had we only known."
In May, prior to Ratcliffe’s Senate confirmation, acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell cleared for release more than 6,000 pages of transcripts of interviews from the House Intelligence Committee’s long-running Russia investigation. Fox News first reported that top Obama officials, like former DNI James Clapper, testified that he “never saw any direct empirical evidence” of collusion or a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia in the 2016 election.
Meanwhile, Ratcliffe, pointed to other intelligence to “reflect that the Trump-Russia collusion was a narrative created by Democrats — specifically the Clinton campaign.”
Ratcliffe was referring to declassified handwritten notes belonging to former CIA Director John Brennan, which appeared to show Hillary Clinton’s purported “plan” to tie then-candidate Donald Trump to Russia as “a means of distracting the public form her use of a private email server” ahead of the 2016 presidential election. Ratcliffe also declassified a CIA memo sent to then-FBI Director James Comey and then-Deputy Assistant Director of Counterintelligence Peter Strzok, referring to Hillary Clinton’s “plan” to the bureau for potential investigative action.
Ratcliffe noted that most of the intelligence community documents that could be declassified “have been, either by myself or Ric Grenell.”
DECLASSIFIED TRUMP-RUSSIA PROBE DOCUMENTS TO DATE: WHAT TO KNOW
“There are other documents that I’ve provided to the special counsel that can’t be declassified because they might prejudice his investigation, and those documents that still have sources and methods that can’t be declassified at any point in time,” he explained.
Ratcliffe, in October, said that he provided more than 1,000 pages of material to the Justice Department to support Durham’s investigation.
Barr notified the Senate and House Judiciary Committees, in a letter dated Dec. 1 obtained by Fox News, that Durham would be special counsel this week.
“On May 13, 2019, I directed John Durham, U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut, to investigate certain intelligence and law-enforcement activities surrounding the 2016 presidential election,” Barr wrote. “Although I had expected Mr. Durham to complete his work by the summer of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as additional information he uncovered, prevented him from doing so.
“In advance of the presidential election, I decided to appoint Mr. Durham as a Special Counsel to provide him and his team with the assurance that they could complete their work, without regard to the outcome of the election,” Barr wrote, adding that he appointed Durham with “the powers and authority of a Special Counsel” on Oct. 19.
In a scope order, obtained by Fox News, Barr stated that Durham as special counsel “is authorized to investigate whether any federal official, employee, or any other person or entity violated the law in connection with the intelligence, counter-intelligence, or law-enforcement activities directed at the 2016 presidential campaigns, individuals associated with those campaigns, and individuals associated with the administration of President Donald J. Trump, including but not limited to Crossfire Hurricane and the investigation of Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller, III.”
DURHAM MOVING 'FULL SPEED AHEAD'
Under U.S. code, the special counsel would produce a “confidential report” and is ordered to “submit to the Attorney General a final report, and such interim reports as he deems appropriate in a form that will permit public dissemination.”
Fox News reported last week that Durham was moving "full speed ahead" with his investigation after Election Day.
Another source told Fox News that his investigation “is definitely still happening,” despite radio silence coming from the U.S. attorney from Connecticut.
Durham’s investigation has produced one criminal charge so far, against former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith, who was accused of altering an email related to the surveillance of a former Trump campaign aide. That prosecution, though, did not allege a broader conspiracy within the FBI, and the conduct it involved had largely been laid out in a Justice Department inspector general report from last December.
After the Clinesmith charge, Durham’s team went silent. Two sources familiar with the investigation told Fox News over the summer that Durham was not finished with several lines of investigation, which he believed were “critical.”
One source told Fox News Durham had been “feeling more pressure to get this done and wrapped up” over the summer, but said that Durham “does not want this to be viewed political,” and would likely “punt it to after the election,” which he ultimately did.
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Durham was appointed by Barr last year to investigate the origins of the FBI’s Russia probe, shortly after special counsel Robert Mueller completed his yearlong investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians to influence the 2016 presidential election.
Mueller’s investigation yielded no evidence of criminal conspiracy or coordination between the Trump campaign and Russian officials during the 2016 election.
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