‘We have a really honest cop on the beat now…’
(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) If past is prologue, partisan Democrats in Congress and the media will soon undertake a smear campaign to discredit U.S. Attorney John H. Durham.
Attorney General William Barr this week assigned Durham as the lead prosecutor in the Justice Department’s investigation of the Steele Dossier and the origins of the Russia collusion hoax.
Among the names that have been implicated or are likely to come under scrutiny in the alleged conspiracy are former FBI Director James Comey, Deputy Director Andy McCabe, counterintelligence chief Peter Strzok, counsel Lisa Page and a litany of other high-level Obama-era officials.
But given Durham’s impeccable credentials, his detractors will have their work cut out for them. Even left-tilting CNN News noted his bipartisan bona fides in a recent profile.
“He’s been tasked with sensitive, significant and complex investigations on a number of occasions, during Democratic and Republican administrations,” said Deirdre Daly, a predecessor and colleague of Durham’s at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Connecticut.
“That should give the public confidence that he’ll approach this in a fair, balanced and appropriate way,” said Daly, an Obama appointee and self-identified Democrat.
Political Hit-Job?
Although Durham is a registered Republican, reports touted him as being largely nonpartisan, having never given money to or endorsed any political causes.
Former special prosecutor Ken Starr said on Fox News’s “Ingraham Angle” that Durham was “the most respected prosecutor in the United States.”
He is also “totally above politics” said Starr, who oversaw many of the controversial investigations into President Bill Clinton.
“You can’t talk about ‘he’s an angry Republican,'” Starr said. “He was confirmed by literally every member of the Senate who voted—and why? Because of his record. So we have a really honest cop on the beat now.”
Among those celebrating Barr’s decision to appoint Durham were President Donald Trump and Rep. Mark Meadows, R-NC.
John Durham is an outstanding choice for special prosecutor investigating 2016 pre-election activities—his selection further demonstrates Bill Barr’s tenacity and determined desire to get to the truth and restore credibility at the top tier of the DOJ and FBI.
— Mark Meadows (@RepMarkMeadows) May 14, 2019
Less enthusiastic about the move was Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who praised Durham’s credentials but questioned his decision to oversee a “political hit-job.”
Echoing his Connecticut colleague Sen. Richard Blumenthal, who in a recent Senate hearing with Barr suggested that the attorney general would be set up as the “designated fall guy” for the Mueller Report, Murphy hinted at the political attacks that now lay ahead for Durham.
“If I were him, I wouldn’t have taken this job,” Murphy said, “but he’s got a reputation of being apolitical and serious.”
A ‘Hard-Charging Bulldog’
If the lack of ammunition doesn’t have Democrats with guilty consciences cowering, then Durham’s dedication to the job might.
“John is tireless, fair and aggressive,” Daly said.
A Fox News story using anonymous sources close to him said Durham had a reputation for being a “hard-charging, bulldog,”
But reports also noted him as “uniquely qualified” for the challenging task of investigating the investigators.
According to the Epoch Times, one of Durham’s past career highlights was exposing a group of FBI agents who used Italian Mafia members as informants while helping them to cover up a 1965 murder and frame other members of La Cosa Nostra.
A subsequent internal report, topping off at 3,500 pages, called the conspiracy that Durham helped expose “one of the greatest failures in the history of federal law enforcement” and led to an overhaul of FBI policies on the use of confidential sources.
In both his even-handedness and his tenacity, Durham may, in many ways, draw favorable comparisons to Robert Mueller. His legendary discretion is another similarity.
“I would be very surprised if there were any leaks from John or anyone on his team,” Daly told CNN. “I think he will do his work quietly and efficiently, but outside of the public eye.”
Articles on Durham noted that despite his long and storied career as a prosecutor in high-profile corruption and criminal cases, he had remarkably little public footprint.
Quotations from him were relatively difficult to come by. However, one quote, uncovered by the Boston Globe in a January 2008 article, seemed to reveal much about the enigmatic figure—soon likely to become a household name whether he chooses to or not:
“Nobody in this country is above the law, an FBI agent or otherwise,” Durham said at a news conference, “and ultimately the ends do not justify the means.”