[22][23][24] On November 8, 2010, Durham closed the investigation without recommending any criminal charges be filed. He was preceded in death by his . Russiagate special counsel John Durham is in the homestretch. Durham was asked to be the special prosecutor for another major corruption case this time involving the destruction of CIA interrogation tapes. A spokesperson for Garland did not immediately respond to a request for comment on his role in the case. Comparing his expenditures to Durhams is difficult, though, because of the time period in which Durham was not operating as a special counsel, and the differing natures of their assignments. He was appointed by Michael Mukasey to investigate whether tapes had been destroyed after interrogations. Sussman was indicted on charges of providing false statements to the FBI, but, Sussmans name is back in the headlines again as a Durham court filing alleges that Sussman took manipulated traffic supposedly from Trump Tower and later the White House to the FBI inferring there was a connection between the Trump Organization and Russian government. Unbelievably, Durham now explains that the counterintelligence investigation was closed because the FBI incorrectly believed that [Danchenko] had left the country.. Durhams investigation indicates that Danchenko lied to the FBI multiple times, falsehoods that should have been easy for the nations flagship federal investigative agency to run down. I signed one of those letters. [6] He was one of 56 remaining Trump-appointed U.S. Most reports show that Durham graduated with honors, but it is unknown exact what his major study was. [20] He remains Special Counsel as of January 2023. An American Senator once described Durham as tough-nosed, apolitical, and serious.. There is no indication anything came of this, but upon being tipped off, the bureau did some digging and learned that Danchenko had been in contact with people it was investigating as possible Russian intelligence officers. The spending, detailed in documents released Wednesday by the Department of Justice, coincides with an uptick in activity from Durham in recent months. The case against Sussmann was assigned on Thursday to Judge Christopher Cooper, an appointee of President Barack Obama. Did the FBI end up finding out that Danchenko was not really a Russian asset? Nov 4, 2021, 12:40 PM PDT John Durham and Donald Trump. The first, Kevin Clinesmith, pleaded guilty to altering an email used to obtain a surveillance warrant against former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. From April through September, Durham reported a tab of about $2.36 million, including about $1.89 million his team spent and about $471,000 recorded by other Justice Department offices as being in support of his work. Americans anxiously await further Durham findings, and experts say that there is much more to come regarding Durhams investigation. [12][13], In December 2000, Durham revealed secret Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) documents that convinced a judge to vacate the 1968 murder convictions of Enrico Tameleo, Joseph Salvati, Peter J. Limone and Louis Greco because they had been framed by the agency. Rowland. Attorney General Merrick Garland is said to anticipate receiving his final report by the end of the year. Updated: 09/16/2021 09:15 PM EDT. At that time, he was both a supervisor as well as a lawyer at the New Haven Field Office. In a second October 2018 interview led by House Republicans, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) pressed Baker on Sussmanns affiliation with the Clinton campaign, saying he found it unbelievable that Baker didnt press him for details on the origin of the Alfa Bank allegations. Copyright 2010-2021 This Nation. Paul Bedard | March 06, 2023 11:26 AM. Law And Order. Danchenko was charged with five felony counts of making false statements to the FBI. The information was significant because it was included in a series of reports prepared by British ex-spy Christopher Steele, who had been hired by an opposition research firm working for the Clinton campaign. 2021 4:58 PM ET. After being asked by the Biden Administration to resign, John Durham left his United States Attorney in February 2021. Sussmanns lawyers also contend that he never made such a statement, that the evidence in the case is weak and that theres no sign the alleged falsehood affected the FBIs work. The FBI ultimately could not find anything nefarious about the connections. Sussman billed these meetings to the Clinton campaign, according to the indictment. John Durham is a native of Boston, MA. But the prosecutors curiously portrayed the FBI as the victim of Sussmanns machinations when the proof suggested that the bureau was not fooled at all and seemed more like a willing participant in building the Trump/Russia political narrative. Last week, in a jaw-dropping court submission, Durham revealed that the FBI signed up Danchenko as an informant and paid him for almost three years from March 2017 through October 2020. The regulations regarding special counsels are pretty clear about what Mr. Durham does, Garland told reporters on Dec. 6. Michael Sussmann appears in federal court on September 17, 2021. Posted at 10:41 AM, Sep 27, 2021 . | U.S. Department of Justice/AP Photo. 10/12/2022 02:24 PM EDT. These convictions were in Connecticut, where he was serving the U.S. Attorney Generals office. Baker, at the time, said he didnt recall whether Sussmann had represented himself as working on behalf of the Democratic Party or the Clinton campaign. Special counsel John Durham's inquiry into the origins of the investigation into ties between Russia and the 2016 Trump presidential campaign spent close to $3.8 million . An official website of the United States government. [41] United States Attorney Deirdre Daly once described him as "tireless, fair and aggressive" while United States Senator Chris Murphy characterized him as "tough-nosed apolitical and serious".[41]. JOHN IRWIN OBITUARY. Durham would later enroll in the University of Connecticut Law School, where he earned a Juris Doctor degree. On October 19, 2020, John Durham was appointed by Attorney General William Barr to serve as the Special Counsel by the order below. Unlike the Jan. 6 Capitol attack cases and potential investigations into members of Congress and Trump advisers that could emerge, the Hunter Biden matter is not one that involves seditious conspiracy against the U.S., an attempt to overturn a presidential election or any other issue of national significance. The indictment says the DNC retained Sussmann in April 2016 to represent it in connection with Russia's hacking of DNC servers, and Sussmann also advised the Clinton campaign on cybersecurity issues. Although Danchenko was the most important source for Steeles explosive allegations against Trump, the FBI did not interview him prior to using Steeles dossier in its first two sworn surveillance applications, in October 2016 and January 2017. Special counsel to review origins of Trump-Russia investigation, Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections, the 2005 destruction of interrogation tapes, Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, Timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, Timeline of investigations into Donald Trump and Russia (2019), Timeline of investigations into Donald Trump and Russia (20202021), "John Durham Named Interim U.S. Attorney; Presidential Nomination Expected", "Prosecutor Who Unraveled Corruption in Boston Turns to C.I.A. Durhams investigation turned up evidence, however, that was used by the mens families to win a multi-million dollar settlement for wrongful conviction. [3][11] After graduation, he was a VISTA volunteer for two years (19751977) on the Crow Indian Reservation in Montana. A 2019 report by the Justice Department inspector general already had found significant problems with Danchenkos information, but the indictment by Durhams team painted a vivid picture of how the allegations were riddled with rumors and outright falsehoods. [7] Durham was given the authority "to broadly examin[e] the government's collection of intelligence involving the Trump campaign's interactions with Russians," reviewing government documents and requesting voluntary witness statements. The collusion accusations were part of the basis for a number of FISA warrants which allowed government entities to gather intelligence on the Trump family and its organization. Durhams first job in the legal work was working in the Connecticut state government. Attorneys President Joe Biden asked to resign in February 2021. He investigated this allegation for over two years before he closed the case. This 2018 portrait released by the U.S. Department of Justice shows Connecticut's U.S. Attorney John Durham. ", Sussmann's attorneys, Sean Berkowitz and Michael Bosworth, said their client will "fight this baseless and politically-inspired prosecution. When the bureau finally got around to questioning Danchenko because it hadnt been able to corroborate Steeles claims despite relying on them in court it learned that Steele appeared to have exaggerated and possibly fabricated rumors and innuendo about Trump that Danchenko was said to have passed along. In November the special counsel indicted Igor Danchenko, a Washington-based Russian migr who was an important source for the contentious Steele dossier that served an important role in the initial phases of the FBI inquiry Durham is now investigating. The administrations effort to recover the Justice Departments integrity is not limited to the Hunter Biden case. He was a former governor of Connecticut, and he was found guilty on a number of corruption charges, many of which were prosecuted by Durham. It is one of the great dirty tricks in modern political history: The 2016 Democratic presidential campaign colluded with the incumbent Democratic administrations law enforcement and intelligence apparatus to portray their partisan opposition, Donald Trump, as a Kremlin mole, then made the smear stick to the point of forcing Trump to govern for over two years under the cloud of a special-counsel investigation. Updated 10/12/2022 09:11 PM EDT. . Durham would not recommend any criminal charges be filed. He is 5 10 in height, and he weighs approximately 187 lbs. Theres more. [21] [20] Appointments as special investigator Whitey Bulger case That move effectively took Durham out of the normal Justice Department hierarchy and supervision, although after the Biden administration assumed office, Attorney General Merrick Garland retained the right to overrule any of Durhams major decisions, such as the effort to seek an indictment of Sussmann. He previously served as an assistant U.S. attorney in various positions in D.C. for 35 years. NEWS UPDATE. Official websites use .gov Get a 17% Off In-Store Coupon When You Sign Up For Dunham's Email Rewards Less than a month after Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report was released publicly in March 2019, Barr announced that he had assigned John Durhamthe U.S. Attorney for the District of . TTY/ASCII/TDD: 800-877-8339. [14], In 2008, Durham led an inquiry into allegations that FBI agents and Boston Police had ties with the Mafia. Washington DC 20530, Contact the Department John Allen Irwin was born November 6, 1933, in Chicago Illinois and died peacefully June 16, 2021 at the age of 87 surrounded by family. Durham was born in Boston, Massachusetts. Sussmann said he didn't have a specific request for the FBI; he just wanted the bureau to be aware of the information. . The FBI used those reports to justify obtaining secret surveillance orders targeting former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page to advance the agencys probe of possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia. | (U.S. Department of Justice via AP). Republicans have grown impatient with the probe, while still hoping for a report that will vindicate former President Donald Trumps charge that the original inquiry was a thinly veiled and unfounded political attack. Priestap, Baker told lawmakers, assured him that he had extensively followed up on the Alfa Bank matter. The Patriarca family, who chiefly made up the New England Mafia, had territory in Eastern Connecticut, where Durham was prosecutor. Several years later, however, Durham always appears quiet, professional, and definitely apolitical. So what happened? A previous spending report released in May showed the Durham probe had totaled about $1.5 million from Oct. 19 through March 31. Does everybody remember when we caught the Democrats, red-handed, SPYING ON MY CAMPAIGN? Mr. [29] Davis wrote an appeal to former Bush administration officials to take their accounts of illegality directly to Durham. After the indictment was handed up Thursday, Sussmann resigned from Perkins Coie in order to focus on his legal defense, a spokesperson for the firm said in a statement. The Department of Justice would ordinarily never bring such a baseless case.". Tape Case", "U.S. Attorney For Connecticut John Durham Resigns", "Scrutiny of Russia Investigation Is Said to Be a Review, Not a Criminal Inquiry", "AP source: Barr launches new look at origins of Russia probe", "Barr appoints special counsel in Russia probe investigation", "Durham remains special counsel overseeing Trump-Russia probe", "John H. Durham Sworn in as United States Attorney", "John H. Durham: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know", "President Trump Nominates John Durham To Be U.S. Attorney", "Barr appoints John Durham as special counsel investigating 2016 presidential campaign investigators | CNN Politics", "Barr Makes Durham a Special Counsel in a Bid to Entrench Scrutiny of the Russia Inquiry", "Justice Dept. In separate congressional testimony, Baker told lawmakers that Sussmann told him "that he had cyber experts that had obtained some information that they thought they should get into the hands of the FBI.". After in one year in this position, Durham would then move to the Assistant States Attorney position in the New Haven, Connecticut office of the Connecticut States Attorney. Now he works at Starbucks. LANSING, Mich. Daniel Sougstad has been charged with killing his parents, John and Barbara Sougstad, and his brother . That last one should be grabbing our attention. [26], In August 2009, Attorney General Eric Holder appointed Durham to lead the Justice Department's investigation of the legality of CIA's use of so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques" in the torture of detainees. An accounting released earlier this year showed Durham's investigation cost U.S. taxpayers about $1.45 million from mid-October 2020 through March 2021.