Durham’s Investigation Into Russia Origin and Spygate Now Shifted To Fullblown Criminal Investigation

Here's more, from Fox News:

U.S. Attorney John Durham's ongoing probe into potential FBI and Justice Departmentmisconduct in the run-up to the 2016 election through the spring of 2017 has transitioned into a full-fledged criminal investigation, two sources familiar with the investigation told Fox News on Thursday night.

One source added that DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz's upcoming report on alleged FBI surveillance abuses against the Trump campaign will shed light on why Durham's probe has become a criminal inquiry. Horowitz announced on Thursday his report would be available to the public soon, with "few" redactions.

The investigation's new status means Durham can subpoena witnesses, file charges, and impanel fact-finding grand juries.

Fox News reported on Tuesday that Durham's probe had expanded significantly based on new evidence uncovered during a recent trip to Rome with Attorney General Bill Barr.

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Barr reportedly told embassy officials in Italy that he "needed a conference room to meet high-level Italian security agents where he could be sure no one was listening in."

A source in the Italian Ministry of Justice told The Daily Beast earlier this month that Barr and Durham were played a taped deposition made by Joseph Mifsud, the professor who allegedly told ex-Trump aide George Papadopoulos that the Russians had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton. Mifsud reportedly was explaining to investigators in the deposition why people would want to harm him, and why he needed police protection.

Papadopoulos has suggested he was connected with Mifsud as part of a setup orchestrated by intelligence agencies.

Sources told Fox News that Durham was "very interested" to question former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and former CIA Director John Brennan, an anti-Trump critic who recently dismissed the idea. The New York Times reported Thursday that Durham's criminal review has prompted some CIA officials to obtain criminal legal counsel in anticipation of being interviewed.

Brennan and Clapper were at the helm not only when Mifsud spoke to Papadopoulos, but also when an unverified and largely discredited dossier, written by British ex-spy Christopher Steele and funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee, was used to help justify a secret surveillance warrant against former Trump adviser Carter Page in the run-up to the 2016 election. (The Times' reporting on Thursday, which overtly framed Durham's probe as politically tainted without evidence, did not mention the Steele dossier at all.)

The FBI apparently obscured the fact that the Clinton campaign and DNC funded the dossier in its warrant application, telling the secret court only that the dossier was prepared at the behest of an unidentified presidential campaign.

Former DOJ official John Yoo on expansion of the investigation into the origins of the Russia probe.

New details on the expanding investigation in the origins of the Russia probe; chief intelligence correspondent Catherine Herridge reports from Washington.

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Additionally, in its original FISA application and subsequent renewals, the FBI told the FISA court it "did not believe" Steele was the direct source for a Yahoo News article implicating Page in Russian collusion. Instead, the FBI suggested to the secret court, the September 2016 article by Michael Isikoff was independent corroboration of the dossier. But, London court records showed that contrary to the FBI's assessments, Steele briefed Yahoo News and other reporters in the fall of 2016 at the direction of Fusion GPS.

It has further emerged that Steele had communications with a State Department contact -- which were relayed to the FBI -- in which Steele claimed the Russians were running a "technical/human operation run out of Moscow targeting the election" and that "payments to those recruited are made out of the Russian Consulate in Miami."

And from Raw Story:

On Thursday, The New York Times reported that John Durham, the U.S. attorney tapped by Attorney General William Barr to look into right-wing rumors about misconduct in the Russia investigation, is now pursuing the matter as a criminal investigation.

“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,” reported the Times. “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.”