WASHINGTON -- Attorney General William Barr has assigned the top federal prosecutor in Connecticut to examine the origins of the Russia investigation, according to two people familiar with the matter, a move that President Donald Trump has long urged.
John Durham, the U.S. attorney in Connecticut, has a history of serving as a special prosecutor investigating potential wrongdoing among national security officials, including the FBI's ties to a crime boss in Boston.
His inquiry is the third known investigation focused on the opening of an FBI counterintelligence investigation during the 2016 presidential campaign into possible ties between Russia's election interference and Trump associates.
The Justice Department's inspector general, Michael Horowitz, is separately examining investigators' use of wiretap applications and informants and whether any political bias against Trump influenced investigative decisions. And John Huber, the U.S. attorney in Utah, has been reviewing aspects of the Russia investigation.
Thomas Carson, a spokesman for Durham's office, declined to comment, as did a spokesman for the Justice Department.
Durham, who was nominated by Trump in 2017 and has been a Justice Department lawyer since 1982, has conducted special investigations under administrations of both parties. Attorney General Janet Reno asked Durham in 1999 to investigate the FBI's handling of a notorious informant: organized crime leader James "Whitey" Bulger.
In 2008, Attorney General Michael Mukasey assigned Durham to investigate the CIA's destruction of videotapes in 2005 showing the torture of terrorism suspects. A year later, Attorney General Eric Holder expanded Durham's mandate to also examine whether the agency broke any laws in its abuses of detainees in its custody.
Barr has signaled his concerns about the Russia investigation during congressional testimony, particularly the surveillance of Trump associates. "I think spying did occur," he said. "The question is whether it was adequately predicated."
Last week, the FBI director, Christopher Wray, defended the bureau, saying he was unaware of any illegal surveillance and refusing to call agents' work "spying." Former FBI and Justice Department officials have defended the genesis of the investigation, saying it was properly predicated.
A Section on 05/14/2019