Several House Republicans expressed frustration with special counsel John Durham’s investigation, with one arguing he was part of a “cover-up” for his failure to find the genesis of the Trump-Russia investigation.
Durham, who appeared before the House Judiciary Committee during his first public testimony on his report on Wednesday, released his May report revealing the FBI had no proper basis to launch the controversial 2016 election inquiry, which soon transformed into special counsel Robert Mueller’s sprawling investigation.
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Democrats attempted to slam Durham on Wednesday, but some Republicans did too.
During Mueller's investigation, former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to and was sentenced to two weeks in jail for lying to the FBI about his conversations with Maltese professor Joseph Mifsud, whom Papadopoulos said originally told him that the Russians had damaging information about Hillary Clinton.
Durham said Wednesday he went to Italy with then-Attorney General William Barr in 2019 to attempt to gather information about the “mysterious professor.”
Rep. Tom Massie (R-KY) and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) both pressed Durham on his failure to interview Mifsud or get answers on him.
Massie contended in reference to Mifsud that “this all seems to have started with one person, but I don’t see his name in your report. I see it in Mueller’s report 89 times.”
“Who did Mr. Papadopoulos meet with that gave him this supposed Russian information," Massie asked Durham.
“When Mr. Papadopoulos was interviewed by the FBI, he had identified Joseph Mifsud as the person who had provided him that information,” Durham said. “We attempted to interview him. We pursued every lead that we had. We talked to a lawyer that he had in Europe. But we never were able to actually make contact with him.”
Massie asked Durham whether Mifsud was “a Western source” or “associated with Western intelligence.” Durham had no good answer.
“It’s hard to say who Mr. Mifsud is associated with,” Durham replied, saying Mifsud had been “tied up” with Link University in Rome and had some ties to the Italian government.
“Hard to say who Mifsud is?” Gaetz exclaimed. “He’s the guy who started the whole thing. We’ve known it for years.”
Gaetz played video of Mueller’s testimony in the summer of 2019, in which Mueller repeatedly claimed that “I can’t get into that” when asked about Mifsud. He pressed Durham on whether he tried to find out who Mifsud truly was.
"Who put Mifsud in play?” Gaetz said.
“I do not know that. I can’t give you the answer to that," Durham said.
Durham said, “You’d have to find Mr. Mifsud before you could serve a grand jury subpoena on him” when asked why he didn’t subpoena him.
“Your report seems to be less an indictment of the FBI and more an inoculation,” Gaetz contended.
“I was away from my family for four years essentially doing this investigation — in my view, it’s a sincere effort,” Durham replied, adding that “we pursued the facts as best we could with the facts we had.”
Durham admitted that “we don’t know” whether Mifsud is even alive or dead when asked by Massie.
Mueller’s 2019 report described Mifsud as “a London-based professor who had connections to Russia and traveled to Moscow in April 2016.”
The Senate Intelligence Committee’s 2020 report said Mifsud was “a Maltese academic with longstanding Russia ties” who “exhibited behavior consistent with intelligence tradecraft” and had “significant ties to Russian government and business circles.”
Durham said his team managed to reach Mifsud’s alleged lawyer in Europe but that the attorney didn’t know where Mifsud was and said, “There were phones provided to us by his lawyer.”
Stefan Halper, a Cambridge professor who was working with the FBI as an informant, and Azra Turk, a woman posing as Halper's assistant and using an alias, met with Papadopoulos in 2016 during the presidential campaign.
Halper worked as an FBI informant in 2016 and recorded discussions with at least three Trump 2016 campaign members: Papadopoulos, Trump campaign associate Carter Page, and Trump campaign co-chairman Sam Clovis. The potentially exculpatory collusion denials made to him by Trump associates were concealed from the FISA Court.
“I’m not going to be disclosing the names of FBI personnel,” Durham said when asked by Gaetz what Azra Turk’s real name was.
“When you are part of the cover-up, Mr. Durham, you make our jobs harder,” Gaetz contended.
“Well, if that’s your thought, I mean, there’s no way of dissuading you. I can tell you that it’s offensive and that the people who worked on this investigation have spent their lives trying to protect this country,” Durham said.
Victoria Spartz (R-IN) asked for a recording of Halper to be provided to the committee, but Durham said it was in the FBI’s possession and to ask them.
Durham's lengthy report also concluded Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act wrongdoing related to the FBI's reliance on British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s discredited and Democratic-funded dossier to obtain flawed FISA surveillance against Carter Page during and after the 2016 election.
Fired FBI agent Peter Strzok incorrectly claimed in his 2020 book, Compromised, that Australian diplomat Alexander Downer was spurred to inform the U.S. government about a May 2016 conversation he had in a London wine bar with Papadopoulos, in which the Trump campaign associate mentioned that Russia might have information on Clinton, after hearing then-candidate Donald Trump say in July 2016, “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails.”
But, as the Washington Examiner pointed out, Australia informed the United States of this conversation on July 26, 2016, one day before Trump made the comment about Russia. Strzok later admitted that he got the timeline wrong.
“According to Downer, Papadopoulos made no mention of Clinton emails, dirt, or any specific approach by the Russian government to the Trump campaign team with an offer or suggestion of providing assistance,” Durham wrote. “Rather, Downer's recollection was that Papadopoulos simply stated ‘the Russians have information’ and that was all.”
Downer also said he "did not get the sense Papadopoulos was the middle-man to coordinate with the Russians."
The FBI repeatedly misled Justice Department and congressional leadership about Steele and his source Igor Danchenko, and Durham was pressed Wednesday on why this didn’t seem to have been investigated.
The bureau put together “Talking Points re: Crossfire Hurricane Cases” dated March 8, 2017. At the meeting for Justice Department and FBI leaders, then-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe appeared to have led much of the presentation.
The FBI talking points referred to Steele as “CROWN” and repeated allegations in the dossier.
“Our investigation determined that the Crossfire Hurricane investigators did not and could not corroborate any of the substantive allegations contained in the Steele reporting,” Durham’s report concluded. “Nor was Steele able to produce corroboration for any of the reported allegations, even after being offered $1 million or more by the FBI for such corroboration.”
Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC) told Durham that the “predicate for Crossfire Hurricane had collapsed” by March 2017, but “your report makes no mention of the March 8, 2017 talking points … why?”
“I am aware that there were talking points,” Durham said. “I guess it just wasn’t part of the crux … of what we were reporting on.”
The FBI’s “Draft Talking Points” for a Senate Intelligence Committee briefing in February 2018 included further defenses of Steele and Danchenko.
But FBI notes of a January 2017 interview with Danchenko showed he told the bureau he “did not know the origins” of some Steele claims and “did not recall” other dossier information. He noted much of what he passed to Steele was “word of mouth and hearsay,” while some stemmed from “conversation ... with friends over beers” — while the most salacious allegations may have been made in “jest.”
Gaetz also asked Durham if he had investigated why numerous members of Mueller’s team had wiped their phones, and the special counsel said, “I’ve read that … that was not something we were asked to look at.”
Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Ron Johnson (R-WI) sent a May letter to Durham noting that “it seems odd that individuals would be allowed to avoid fully cooperating with your office."
The GOP letter specifically pointed to the refusal by McCabe, Strzok, fired FBI Director James Comey, former assistant director of the FBI Counterintelligence Division Bill Priestap, convicted ex-FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith, and Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson to either fully cooperate with Durham or to cooperate at all.
Bishop said, “It seems inexplicable to me that you didn’t compel their testimony.”
“It is as disappointing, perhaps more disappointing, to me and my colleagues that these people would not agree to be interviewed,” Durham contended, saying, “You can’t just subpoena people to make them talk.”
Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-WI) asked Durham, “Why did you think it wasn’t relevant to subpoena Mr. Priestap about his involvement in Crossfire Hurricane?”
Priestap agreed to talk about the debunked Alfa Bank saga but nothing beyond that.
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“We were as disappointed with some of these decisions on the part of some high-ranking members of the FBI as you are,” Durham claimed, arguing that there are a “number of factors to determine whether it is appropriate” to issue subpoenas.
Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) told Durham that “I think you understand why so many of us are underwhelmed with some of your recommendations for the FBI” and that “people like me … are baffled — just utterly baffled — that more people have not been held accountable for their crimes.”