Special Counsel John Durham’s investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia collusion probe is nearing its conclusion and only Merrick Garland will have the authority to release the findings to the public or not.
According to Yahoo News, the report provides the opportunity to present evidence that the Justice Department began its investigation into Trump in 2016 under dubious circumstances or with unscrupulous methods. Trump wrote of the report and said, “The public is waiting ‘with bated breath'” for the Durham Report, “which should reveal corruption at a level never seen before in our country.”
There has been no official word from the Justice Department as to whether they will release the findings or not.
In May 2019 then-Attorney General William Barr appointed Durham to investigate the origins of Crossfire Hurricane, which was the FBI investigation into potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 presidential election. Much of their work was based on the testimony in the so-called Steele dossier, a document provided by Christopher Steele, a former MI6 agent.
The Steele dossier was the inciting incident that generated Crossfire Hurricane and Robert Mueller’s full investigation into Trump, which eventually found that the president did not have ties to Russia. Durham was appointed as a special counsel by Barr in 2020 which enabled him to continue his work after the election, no matter the victor.
Some of Durham’s work has become public as Russian analyst Igor Danchenko has been indicted by a grand jury based in the Eastern District of Virginia. Danchenko was a key source of information for the Steele dossier and the intel he provided was found to be fictitious.
Danchenko’s faulty data was the starting point for the first round of warrants executed on Trump officials.
Michael Sussman was also indicted for lying to the FBI but was acquitted this year. Sussman was a lawyer who had connections with Hillary Clinton’s campaign and was accused of lying about Trump connections with a Russian bank.
An unknown FBI lawyer struck a plea deal with Durham over lying in an email in order to obtain a wiretap.
