REPORT: John Durham Tapped by Sessions in 2017 to Investigate Comey Leak

US Attorney from Connecticut John Durham was tapped by then Attorney General Jeff Sessions in March of 2017 to investigate then-FBI Director James Comey.

According to a new book written by New York Times reporter Mike Schmidt, Sessions in March of 2017 appointed John Durham to investigate James Comey following a report by the New York Times that Comey asked the DOJ to make a statement denying Trump’s accusation that Obama wiretapped Trump Tower — but the DOJ refused.

President Trump also fired off a tweet hammering Obama for wiretapping Trump Tower.

Sessions assigned Durham to open a leak investigation into James Comey. Durham reportedly had his own office and reported directly to Jeff Sessions, angering career officials working under then-DAG Rod Rosenstein.

Via Lawfare Blog:

Schmidt reports in his book that around March 2017, Attorney General Jeff Sessions tapped Durham—then an assistant U.S. attorney in Connecticut—to open a leak investigation into FBI Director James Comey following reporting by the New York Times that Comey had asked the Justice Department to refute Trump’s baseless allegations that former President Barack Obama had ordered the wiretapping of Trump Tower. The investigation reported directly to Sessions. Schmidt adds that Durham’s investigation “unnerved career officials in the deputy attorney general’s office,” which is generally responsible for the department’s day-to-day operations and normally would have overseen an investigation like Durham’s.

The existence of the investigation shows that Durham has been involved with the investigation of Russia-related matters from the very start of the Trump administration, a point the New York Times’s Charlie Savage made on Twitter. It is unclear to what extent Durham’s 2017 inquiry is related to a January 2020 report that federal prosecutors were investigating whether Comey improperly disclosed information to reporters in the spring of 2017.

Meanwhile….

A year and a half after US Attorney General Bill Barr appointed Durham to investigate the origins of Spygate, he finally filed a criminal complaint against FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith and charged him with one count of making false statements after he altered an email from CIA investigators used to request a FISA warrant and renewals on Trump campaign advisor Carter Page.

Clinesmith plead guilty last month to one charge of making false statements 18 USC 1001 a(3) “makes or uses any false writing or document knowing the same to contain any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or entry.”

This means John Durham has been closely connected to the Russiagate investigation for 3 years and we’ve only seen one person charged.

Comey has been under investigation by Durham since 2017 and he still has not been indicted.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/09/report-john-durham-tapped-sessions-2017-investigate-comey-leak/

‘Turning Point for the Nation’: Pro-Life Leaders Urge Trump to ‘Move Quickly’ to Fill Supreme Court Vacancy

Both pro-life leaders and abortion rights advocates are keenly aware the vacancy on the Supreme Court following the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg could mark a crucial moment in the history of the nation and how America views the right to life.

While some pro-life leaders are acknowledging Ginsburg’s role in advancing the position of women in the legal profession, they are eager to have another Supreme Court justice who is a Constitutionalist, and one who views the right to life, including for unborn children, as the most fundamental right protected by the Constitution.

Catherine Glenn Foster, president of Americans United for Life, is urging President Donald Trump to “move quickly to nominate Judge Amy Coney Barrett,” who currently sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, to fill the High Court’s vacancy. Foster said:

At this crucial time in the history of our great nation, it is imperative that a respected nominee is selected who will understand that the role of the High Court is to fairly interpret America’s Constitution and laws according to the meaning and intention of Congress and the Framers, and not seek to write their own value judgments into law.

She added Barrett “values upholding the original understanding and blessings of liberty inherent in our cherished Constitution,” and observed it is likely the Court “will be asked to rule on questions fundamental to the functioning of our Republic, including the most important human rights question of our time: the human right to life.”

“We are confident that if appointed to the Supreme Court, Judge Barrett would prove herself a trusted caretaker of the Constitutional protections extended to every human person in America, including human lives in the womb,” Foster said.

The abortion industry, however, does not support the right to life of unborn children. The rights of women to control their bodies and end pregnancies when they choose are paramount to this lobby, which profits from abortion.

Thank you, Justice Ginsburg, for always being a fierce defender of our right to control our bodies, our lives, and our destinies. We will continue to fight in your honor. Rest in peace. https://t.co/8ZRghRZhnb

— Planned Parenthood Action – Text WeDecide to 22422 (@PPact) September 19, 2020

If Trump appoints another #SCOTUS Justice, we know what’s at stake. . , gone. The #ACA, gone. Protections for LGBTQ folks and immigrants, gone. The list goes on. We can’t let him strip away our freedoms. Join our fight, protect our court: https://t.co/NDFNLIsbxT

— NARAL (@NARAL) September 19, 2020

In her honor we will be dedicating the ACLU Center for Liberty as the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Liberty Center.

Rest in power, RBG.

— ACLU (@ACLU) September 19, 2020

“Without the right to Life, no other rights matter,” said Troy Newman, president of abortion industry watchdog group Operation Rescue:

The right to be born and live life in freedom is the most precious and foundational of all rights … The death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has given President Donald J. Trump the unique opportunity to shape the direction of the U.S. Supreme Court with a nominee that will respect the Constitution and the founding tenets in the Declaration of Independence.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/09/19/turning-point-for-the-nation-pro-life-leaders-urge-trump-to-move-quickly-to-fill-supreme-court-vacancy/

Trump Will Name One of These 12 People to the Supreme Court Next Week

On Saturday evening at a rally in Fayetteville, N.C., President Donald Trump announced that he would be naming a successor to the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

“I will be putting forth a nominee next week. It will be a woman,” the president declared. This will likely unleash speculation as to which candidate Trump will choose from his list of potential nominees.

Trump made the announcement shortly after a heartfelt tribute to Ginsburg, a liberal lion of the Court who refused to retire despite fighting pancreatic cancer for more than a decade.

“As we meet tonight, our nation mourns the loss of a legal giant, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg,” the president declared. “Her landmark rulings, fierce commitment to justice, and her courageous battle against cancer inspire all Americans. … She was an inspiration to a tremendous number of people, I say all Americans.”

“Justice Ginsburg’s close relationship with a friend of ours, a friend of mine, Justice Scalia, is also a powerful reminder that we can disagree on fundamental issues while treating each other with decency, dignity, and respect,” Trump added. “Our thoughts and prayers are with her family.”

Three strong possibilities

Since Trump said he will choose a woman, that narrows down the names on his list of potential nominees. Twelve of the 44 names on Trump’s list are women. Of those twelve, 7th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Amy Coney Barrett is considered the frontrunner.

When Trump was deliberating which nominee to choose when replacing Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, the president told confidants he had big plans for Barrett. “I’m saving her for Ginsburg,” he said, three sources told Axios’ Jonathan Swan last March.

Barrett would be an excellent choice. Not only is she a stellar judge and a pro-life Roman Catholic, but Barrett performed well under fire during her confirmation hearing in 2017. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) notoriously said, “The dogma lives loudly within you,” suggesting something of a religious test for a federal judgeship.

Democrats have only gotten worse in their readiness to launch inquisitions into the faith of the conservative Christians whom Trump has nominated to federal offices. Many have cited the far-left smear factory the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) to demonize nominees who have spoken at events with Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), an accomplished conservative Christian law firm that the SPLC unfairly demonizes as a “hate group.”

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s running mate and a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has a history of attacking conservative Christians for their faith and she will likely vociferously attack Barrett in the confirmation hearings.

In fact, Harris previously attacked another woman on Trump’s shortlist, Allison Jones Rushing, a judge on the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. Rushing clerked for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and she clerked for Neil Gorsuch when he was an appeals court judge. Harris attacked Rushing for her relationship with ADF and asked her whether she thinks “that LGBT rights cannot be reconciled with religion.”

Many commentators are speculating that Trump may pick 11th Circuit Court Judge Barbara Lagoa, a Cuban judge who would become the second Latina member of the Supreme Court after Sonia Sotomayor. Lagoa previously served as a justice on the Florida Supreme Court.

Mark Levin zeroed in on three names, one of whom is not a woman: Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), Barrett, and Rushing.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/tyler-o-neil/2020/09/19/rumors-swirl-trump-will-name-a-ginsburg-replacement-next-week-n945826