'Strong' paper trail has John Durham investigating the months before Mueller appointment
January 17, 2020
A trail of documents has reportedly led Attorney General William Barr's handpicked federal prosecutor to focus his inquiry into the origins of the Russia investigation on the first several months of President Trump's tenure.
John Durham, a U.S. attorney from Connecticut, is zeroing in on the period spanning from January 2017, when Trump took office, to May of that year. A "strong" paper trail, as CBS News senior investigative correspondent Catherine Herridge put it on Friday, has led the investigation into possible misconduct by federal law enforcement and intelligence officials to that time frame.
Durham's office declined to comment for this report.
While Trump and his allies have championed Durham's effort, Democrats have dismissed the allegations of wrongdoing during the Trump-Russia investigation and are concerned the inquiry may be an effort to discredit the work of special counsel Robert Mueller. Trump gave Barr full declassification authority for the endeavor.
Barr and Durham have traveled around the world for the investigation, and Durham's team has already asked witnesses about possible anti-Trump bias among former FBI officials. The secretive DOJ inquiry includes scrutiny of former CIA Director John Brennan, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former FBI special agent Peter Strzok, and British ex-spy Christopher Steele.
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