Senate Democrats Demand Investigation of the John Durham Investigation's Investigation

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Law and Crime


MATT NAHAM
Sep 17th, 2020, 4:43 pm




In a sign of the times, Senate Democrats on Thursday demanded an investigation of John Durham’s investigation of the Russia investigation. Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee, including Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s choice for vice president Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), asked Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz to examine whether Durham’s probe has run afoul of DOJ policies meant to insulate criminal investigations from partisan whims and aims.

Sens. Harris, Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Ct.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), and Cory Booker (D-N.J.). signed the letter.

The letter cited the recent resignation of Durham’s top aide Nora Dannehy from the investigation. Dannehy reportedly resigned out of concern that the investigation was being pressured by Attorney General Bill Barr to come up with results before the election, ostensibly so investigative findings—regardless of their completeness—can be used for maximum political impact.

“The Department’s mission to ‘ensure fair and impartial administration of justice for all Americans’ requires that its prosecutorial decisions be insulated from political influence. To that end, longstanding rules restrain Department personnel from publicly commenting on pending investigations, taking actions that may affect an upcoming election, and communicating with the White House about ongoing criminal investigations,” the letter began, before shifting attention to what “[r]ecent reports suggest.”.

Read more: https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/senate-democrats-demand-investigation-of-the-john-durham-investigations-investigation/

[ananda]

1. This is getting absurdly meta meta!

But I guess that's the world we live in now...

[SharonClark]

2. "partisan whims and aims" describes the work of every Trump appointee.

There's so much corruption, I hope we have the resources to bring them all to justice when Biden is President.

[NCjack]

3. A good marker for DEMs to put in now. After Joe is in office, we can investigate

Repukes and where appropriate bring criminal charges. See, AG Barr, sometimes it is best not to do stupid.

[pecosbob]

4. We've come full circle...

[scarletwoman]

5. While they're at it, how about investigating what Ron Johnson was doing in Moscow on July 4th, 2018.

Eight Republicans pick the worst possible place to celebrate July 4

Opinion by Dana Milbank

July 6, 2018

“What does July 4th mean to me? Freedom,” Sen. Ron Johnson chirruped on Twitter on Independence Day.

For the Wisconsin Republican, it meant, specifically, the freedom to spend July 4 in Moscow with seven other Republican lawmakers posing for propaganda photos with Russian officials. On the same day it was reported in Britain that two more people had been poisoned by a Russian nerve agent British officials say came from Vladimir Putin’s regime. On the day after the Senate Intelligence Committee affirmed the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia interfered in the election to help Donald Trump.

Johnson and his colleagues apparently exercised their freedom not to meet with opposition or civil society figures (those whom the Putin regime has not imprisoned or killed), avoiding the risk of offending their hosts. They also exercised their freedom to soft-pedal their criticism of the Russian government, leading Russian politicians and state media to mock them as supplicants.

<snip>

So, what do we call these Red Square Republicans? My interlocutors on Twitter suggest “Moscow Mules.” Or, given the position they put themselves in before our masters in Moscow, perhaps they should be called the Prostrate Eight: Sens. Richard C. Shelby (Ala.), Steve Daines (Mont.), John Hoeven (N.D.), John Neely Kennedy (La.), Jerry Moran (Kan.), John Thune (S.D.) and Johnson, plus Rep. Kay Granger (Tex.).

<snip>

Yes, let us strive for camaraderie with a government that attacks us with cyberwarfare, meddles in our elections, denies entry to American officials who are critical of Moscow, destabilizes Europe and the Middle East, kills critics at home and abroad, occupies its neighbors’ land and shoots down the occasional passenger jet. Or, as Shelby put it, “this, that or so forth.”

<snip>

Duma member Vyacheslav Nikonov said that of the many meetings he has had with American lawmakers, this “was one of the easiest ones in my life,” The Post’s Anton Troianovski reports.

The Post’s Karoun Demirjian reports that state television in Russia mocked the meek Americans. One Russian military expert said, “We need to look down at them and say: You came because you needed to, not because we did.

Sergey Kislyak, Russian legislator and former ambassador to Washington, dismissed the Prostrate Eight’s message as “things we’d heard before,” and said “our guests heard rather clearly and distinctly” Russia’s denial that it interfered in U.S. elections.

<snip>

“Happy 4th of July!” Shelby, leader of the Moscow Mules, tweeted from Russia. “We are the land of the free because of the brave.”

And what is more courageous than visiting your foe on the Fourth of July and shrinking from accusations of this or that or so forth?

(read more at link)

[raging moderate]

6. This story deserves its own DU thread.

[scarletwoman]

7. It was definitely discussed here on DU at the time, but I've not seen any follow-up in the MSM.

That's not to say there hasn't been any - just that I haven't seen any myself.

[MissMillie]

8. Isn't this...

...the investigation where Guiliani is feeding them "intel" from the Russian agent?

It's kind of a no-brainer, isn't it?