Special counsel John Durham at center of political clash
Washington — The special counsel who investigated the FBI’s probe of ties between Russia and Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign found himself at the center of a heated political fight as he appeared before a congressional committee Wednesday, with Democrats denouncing his inquiry and Republicans arguing that its findings helped prove an anti-Trump bias within law enforcement.
John Durham, the Justice Department special counsel who recently completed his report, testified before the House Judiciary Committee in a hearing that unfolded against the backdrop of a 37-count indictment of Trump on charges he illegally retained classified documents.
Despite roughly six hours of testimony, the hearing broke little new ground. Under questioning from Republicans, he repeated many of the strongest findings of condemnation in his 306-page report and also faced criticism from Democrats over a fouryear investigation that produced just one conviction and fell short of Trump’s claims that it would expose “the crime of the century.”
The hearing spotlighted well-established law enforcement errors during the years-old Trump-Russia investigation, but Durham’s appearance took on more contemporary political resonance in light of the criminal case against Trump and efforts by the former president and some Republican allies to undermine public confidence in the FBI.
“They’re never going to stop. Seven years of attacking Trump is scary enough, but what’s more frightening, any one of us could be next,” said the committee chairman, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio.
Democrats, for their part, went after Durham and his investigation in personal terms — Rep. Ted Lieu of California derided him for behaving like a “partisan hack.” They accused Republicans of using Durham’s appearance as a pretext to criticize the FBI for its continued scrutiny of Trump and to distract from the former president’s current legal troubles.
“That’s why you’re here today, not because of anything that happened in 2016,” New York Rep. Jerrold Nadler, the top Democrat on the committee, told Nadler.
Durham, who was appointed by then-Attorney General William Barr to review the origins of Trump-Russia investigation, tried to keep the focus of the hearing on his findings.