Democrats appear to be motivated more by panic as the election nears.
Democratic chairs of four House committees are now calling for an emergency investigation of John Durham’s probe of the Obama administration’s activites involving President Donald Trump.
They sent a letter on Friday to the Justice Department’s top internal watchdog.
In the letter, they write: “We are concerned by indications that Attorney General Barr might depart from longstanding DOJ principles to take public action related to U.S. Attorney Durham’s investigation that could impact the presidential election.”
The letter was signed by House Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler, House Oversight Chair Carolyn Maloney, House Intelligence Chair Adam Schiff, and House Administration Chair Zoe Lofgren.
What are they so afraid of?
Politico has the story:
Four House committee chairs are asking the Justice Department's top watchdog to open an "emergency" review of Attorney General William Barr's handling of an investigation into the origins of the FBI's Trump-Russia probe, questioning whether that probe — led by U.S. Attorney John Durham — is complying with DOJ rules intended to avoid influencing an imminent election.
"We are concerned by indications that Attorney General Barr might depart from longstanding DOJ principles to take public action related to U.S. Attorney Durham’s investigation that could impact the presidential election," wrote House Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), House Oversight Chair Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), House Intelligence Chair Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), and House Administration Chair Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) in a six-page letter to Inspector General Michael Horowitz.
The four chairs say Barr's public comments on the Durham probe may already be a violation of DOJ policies prohibiting public comments on an ongoing investigation, and they say his conduct may also violate the IG's own 2018 recommendations about avoiding taking politically sensitive steps less than two months before the Nov. 3 election.
President Donald Trump has sought more prosecutions related to Durham’s probe, and has called for FBI and intelligence officials he views as his political enemies to be punished.
Do democrats seem a little nervous?
The Daily Caller with more on Republican response to the letter:
Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee shot back at the letter, saying in a tweet Friday that Democrats “are absolutely terrified” of the Durham probe and what it might uncover.
“They know Barr and Durham are cleaning up the what the[sic] Obama/Biden DOJ left behind,” the Republicans wrote. “And the results won’t be pretty for them.”
Durham is conducting a sprawling investigation into FBI, CIA and other U.S. agencies’ Trump-related actions during the 2016 presidential campaign and beyond.
The investigation has dug further into the findings of an IG report that Horowitz issued on Dec. 9 that said that the FBI misled the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in order to obtain warrants against Carter Page.
Many of the errors Horowitz identified involved the FBI’s handling of the Steele dossier.
Durham has also interviewed former CIA Director John Brennan as part of the investigation. The prosecutor is reportedly looking into the CIA’s assessment that Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized meddling in the 2016 election specifically to help Donald Trump.
While Democrats have portrayed the Durham investigation as a witch hunt, one former FBI lawyer, Kevin Clinesmith, has pleaded guilty in the probe. Clinesmith admitted to altering a June 2017 email from a CIA analyst regarding Carter Page.
Barr has denied that the investigation will influence the upcoming election, saying that former Vice President Joe Biden is not a target of the inquiry.
Barr said in an interview on Aug. 13 that he expects “significant” developments in the investigation to come out before the election.
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