John Durham (lawyer)

John Henry Durham (born March 16, 1950)[3][4][5] is an American lawyer. He has been the United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut since February 2018. Durham had been an Assistant U.S. Attorney in various positions in the District of Connecticut for 35 years. He is known for leading an inquiry into allegations that FBI agents and Boston police had ties with the mob,[6] and his role as special prosecutor in the 2005 CIA interrogation tapes destruction.[3] In May 2019, U.S. Attorney General William Barr tasked Durham with overseeing a review of the origins of the Russia investigation and to determine if intelligence collection involving the Trump campaign was "lawful and appropriate".[7]

John Durham
United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut
Assumed office
November 1, 2017
Acting: November 1, 2017 – February 22, 2018
PresidentDonald Trump
Preceded byDeirdre M. Daly
In office
1997 – 1998
Acting
PresidentBill Clinton
Preceded byChristopher F. Droney[1]
Succeeded byStephen C. Robinson
Personal details
Born
John Henry Durham

(1950-03-16) March 16, 1950
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Political partyRepublican[2]
EducationColgate University (BA)
University of Connecticut (JD)

Education and volunteer work

Durham received a B.A. degree with honors from Colgate University in 1972.[8] He received a J.D. degree in 1975 from the University of Connecticut School of Law.[3]

After graduation, he was a VISTA volunteer for two years (1975–1977) on the Crow Indian Reservation in Montana.[9]

Career

Connecticut state government

After Durham's volunteer work, he became a state prosecutor in Connecticut. From 1977 to 1978, he served as a Deputy Assistant State's Attorney in the Office of the Chief State's Attorney. From 1978 to 1982, Durham served as an Assistant State's Attorney in the New Haven State's Attorney's Office.[9]

Federal government

Following those five years as a state prosecutor, Durham became a federal prosecutor, joining the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Connecticut.[8] From 1982 to 1989, he served as an attorney and then supervisor in the New Haven Field Office of the Boston Strike Force in the Justice Department's Organized Crime and Racketeering Section. From 1989 to 1994, he served as Chief of the Office's Criminal Division. From 1994 to 2008, he served as the Deputy U.S. Attorney, and served as the U.S. Attorney in an acting and interim capacity in 1997 and 1998.[9][10]

In December 2000, Durham revealed secret FBI documents that convinced a judge to vacate the 1968 murder convictions of Enrico Tameleo, Joseph Salvati, Peter J. Limone and Louis Greco because they had been framed by the agency. In 2007, the documents helped Salvati, Limone, and the families of the two other men, who had died in prison, win a $101.7 million civil judgment against the government.[11]

Durham also led a series of high-profile prosecutions in Connecticut against the New England Mafia and corrupt politicians, including former governor John G. Rowland.[11]

From 2008 to 2012, Durham also served as the Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.[9]

On November 1, 2017, he was nominated by President Donald Trump to serve as U.S. Attorney for Connecticut.[12] On February 16, 2018, his nomination was confirmed by voice vote of the Senate. He was sworn in on February 22, 2018.[9]

Appointments as special investigator

Whitey Bulger case

Amid allegations that FBI informants James "Whitey" Bulger and Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi had corrupted their handlers, US Attorney General Janet Reno named Durham special prosecutor in 1999. He oversaw a task force of FBI agents brought in from other offices to investigate the Boston office's handling of informants.[11] In 2002, Durham helped secure the conviction of retired FBI agent John J. Connolly Jr., who was sentenced to 10 years in prison on federal racketeering charges for protecting Bulger and Flemmi from prosecution and warning Bulger to flee just before the gangster's 1995 indictment.[11] Durham's task force also gathered evidence against retired FBI agent H. Paul Rico who was indicted in Oklahoma on state charges that he helped Bulger and Flemmi kill a Tulsa businessman in 1981. Rico died in 2004 before the case went to trial.[11]

CIA interrogation tapes destruction

In 2008, Durham was appointed by Attorney General Michael Mukasey to investigate the destruction of CIA videotapes of detainee interrogations.[13][14][15] On November 8, 2010, Durham closed the investigation without recommending any criminal charges be filed.[16] Durham's final report remains secret but was the subject of an unsuccessful lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act filed by The New York Times reporter Charlie Savage.[17]

Torture investigation

In August 2009, Attorney General Eric Holder appointed Durham to lead the Justice Department's investigation of the legality of CIA's use of so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques" in the torture of detainees.[18] Durham's mandate was to look at only those interrogations that had gone "beyond the officially sanctioned guidelines", with Attorney General Holder saying interrogators who had acted in "good faith" based on the guidance found in the torture memos issued by the Bush Justice Department were not to be prosecuted.[19] Later in 2009, University of Toledo law professor Benjamin G. Davis attended a conference where former officials of the Bush administration had told conference participants shocking stories, and accounts of illegality on the part of more senior Bush officials.[20] Davis wrote an appeal to former Bush officials to take their accounts of illegality directly to Durham. A criminal investigation into the deaths of two detainees, Gul Rahman in Afghanistan and Manadel al-Jamadi in Iraq, was opened in 2011. It was closed in 2012 with no charges filed.[21][22]

Investigation into origins of FBI investigation "Crossfire Hurricane"
Main article: Russia investigation origins counter-narrative § Durham inquiry

In April 2019,[23] Attorney General William Barr announced that he had launched a review of the origins of the FBI's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections[24] and it was reported in May that he had assigned Durham to lead it several weeks earlier.[25] Durham was given the authority "to broadly examin[e] the government's collection of intelligence involving the Trump campaign's interactions with Russians," reviewing government documents and requesting voluntary witness statements.[25]

On October 24, 2019, it was reported that what had been a review of the Russia investigation was now a criminal probe into the matter. The Justice Department could now utilize subpoena power for both witness testimony and documents. Durham also had at his disposal the power to convene a grand jury and file criminal charges, if needed.[26][27] The New York Times reported on November 22 that the Justice Department inspector general had made a criminal referral to Durham regarding Kevin Clinesmith, an FBI attorney who had altered an email during the process of acquiring a wiretap warrant renewal on Carter Page, and that referral appeared to be at least part of the reason Durham's investigation was elevated to criminal status.[28] On August 14, 2020, Clinesmith pleaded guilty to a felony violation of altering an email used to maintain Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants. He changed an email to falsely add a claim that Page was "not a source" for the CIA, to a statement by the CIA liaison that Carter Page had a prior operational relationship with the CIA from 2008 to 2013.[29][30]

The day Justice Department inspector general Michael Horowitz released his report on the 2016 FBI Crossfire Hurricane investigation, which found the investigation was properly predicated and debunked a number of conspiracy theories regarding its origins, Durham issued a statement saying, "we do not agree with some of the report’s conclusions as to predication and how the FBI case was opened."[31][32] Many observers inside and outside the Justice Department, including the inspector general, expressed surprise that Durham would issue such a statement, as federal investigators typically do not publicly comment on their ongoing investigations.[33] Barr also released a statement challenging the findings of the report.[34] Horowitz later testified to the Senate that prior to release of the report he had asked Durham for any information he had that might change the report's findings, but "none of the discussions changed our findings."[35] The Washington Post reported that Durham could not provide evidence of any setup by American intelligence.[36]

The New York Times reported in December 2019 that Durham was examining the role of former CIA director John Brennan in assessing Russian interference in 2016, requesting emails, call logs and other documents. Brennan had been a vocal critic of Trump and a target of the president's accusations of improper activities toward him. The Times reported Durham was specifically examining Brennan's views of the Steele dossier and what he said about it to the FBI and other intelligence agencies. Brennan and former director of national intelligence James Clapper had testified to Congress that the CIA and other intelligence agencies did not rely on the dossier in preparing the January 2017 intelligence community assessment of Russian interference, and allies of Brennan said he disagreed with the FBI view that the dossier should be given significant weight, as the CIA characterized it as "internet rumor."[37] The Times reported in February 2020 that Durham was examining whether intelligence community officials, and specifically Brennan, had concealed or manipulated evidence of Russian interference to achieve a desired result. FBI and NSA officials told Durham that his pursuit of this line of inquiry was due to his misunderstanding of how the intelligence community functions.[38]

Accolades

In November 2011, Durham was included on The New Republic's list of Washington's most powerful, least famous people.[39]

gollark: I have 12GB of total swap, so this might be a problem.
gollark: Weak. I have *11GB* in swap.
gollark: Are you more constrained by CPU or RAM?
gollark: I mean, LZ4ing is probably going to be faster than swapping to a *hard disk*.
gollark: It would probably work. Don't know if there would be performance benefits.

See also

References
  1. "About the Office". justice.gov. March 18, 2015.
  2. Mahony, Edmund H. (October 27, 2017). "John Durham Named Interim U.S. Attorney; Presidential Nomination Expected". Hartford Courant. Retrieved October 24, 2019.
  3. Lewis, Neil A. (January 13, 2008). "Prosecutor Who Unraveled Corruption in Boston Turns to C.I.A. Tape Case". The New York Times. Retrieved July 10, 2017.
  4. "Committee Questionnaire" (PDF).
  5. Ford, Lois Mitchell (1979). Descendants of David Mitchell of Burnton, Laurencekirk, Kincardineshire, Scotland.
  6. Politi, Daniel (January 3, 2008). "The Jump Off". Slate.
  7. "AP source: Barr launches new look at origins of Russia probe". Associated Press. May 14, 2019.
  8. James, Randy (August 26, 2009). "CIA Abuse Investigator John Durham". Time. Retrieved July 10, 2017.
  9. "John H. Durham Sworn in as United States Attorney". United States Department of Justice. February 22, 2018. Retrieved June 17, 2019.
  10. McBride, Jessica (May 14, 2019). "John H. Durham: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved June 17, 2019.
  11. Murphy, Shelley (January 7, 2008). "US prosecutor's tenacity is rewarded". Boston.com. (subscription required)
  12. Mahony, Edmund H. (November 1, 2017). "President Trump Nominates John Durham To Be U.S. Attorney". Hartford Courant. Retrieved November 1, 2017.
  13. Shapiro, Lila (August 24, 2009). "'Inhumane' CIA Terror Tactics Spur Criminal Probe". Huffington Post.
  14. The Associated Press (January 2, 2008). "Criminal probe opened over CIA tapes". Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
  15. Apuzzo, Matt (January 3, 2008). "Veteran prosecutor takes over CIA probe". Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
  16. Mazzetti, Mark; Savage, Charlie (November 9, 2010). "No Criminal Charges Sought Over C.I.A. Tapes". New York Times. Retrieved October 14, 2011.
  17. Savage, Charlie (May 10, 2018). "Gina Haspel's Testimony About C.I.A. Torture Raises New Questions". The New York Times. Retrieved June 22, 2018. Mr. Rodriguez and Ms. Haspel were later investigated by John Durham, an assistant United States attorney. Mr. Durham ultimately recommended filing no charges over the tape destruction, but his report laying out his findings and reasoning is secret. (The New York Times lost a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit to make it public.)
  18. Johnson, Carrie (August 25, 2009). "Holder Hires Prosecutor to Look Into Alleged CIA Interrogation Abuses". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 6, 2010.
  19. Adam Serwer (August 31, 2012). "Investigation of Bush-era Torture Concludes With No Charges". Mother Jones. Retrieved May 14, 2019.
  20. Benjamin G. Davis (September 25, 2009). "Torture Tales: Calling John Durham". The Jurist. Archived from the original on September 24, 2009. Retrieved September 27, 2009.
  21. Shane, Scott (August 30, 2012). "Holder Rules Out Prosecutions in C.I.A. Interrogations". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 18, 2019.
  22. "Statement of Attorney General Eric Holder on Closure of Investigation into the Interrogation of Certain Detainees". justice.gov. August 30, 2012. Retrieved May 18, 2019.
  23. Johnson, Kevin (May 14, 2019). "Attorney General taps top Connecticut federal prosecutor for review of Trump-Russia inquiry". USA TODAY. Retrieved May 17, 2019.
  24. Goldman, Adam; Savage, Charlie; Schmidt, Michael S. (May 13, 2019). "Barr Assigns U.S. Attorney in Connecticut to Review Origins of Russia Inquiry". The New York Times. Retrieved May 14, 2019.
  25. Savage, Charlie; Goldman, Adam; Fandos, Nicholas (May 14, 2019). "Scrutiny of Russia Investigation Is Said to Be a Review, Not a Criminal Inquiry". The New York Times. Retrieved May 17, 2019.
  26. Dunleavy, Jerry (October 25, 2019). "John Durham opens criminal inquiry in DOJ's investigation of the investigators". Washington Examiner. Retrieved October 25, 2019.
  27. Benner, Katie; Goldman, Adam (October 24, 2019). "Justice Dept. Is Said to Open Criminal Inquiry Into Its Own Russia Investigation". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved October 25, 2019.
  28. Goldman, Adam; Savage, Charlie (November 22, 2019). "Russia Inquiry Review Is Said to Criticize F.B.I. but Rebuff Claims of Biased Acts". The New York Times.
  29. Kalmbacher, Colin. Here’s What We Know About ‘FBI Attorney 2’ Kevin Clinesmith, the First Person Charged in Durham Probe, Law & Crime, August 14, 2020.
  30. CNN, Katelyn Polantz and David Shortell. "Former FBI lawyer set to plead guilty to altering email during Russia investigation". CNN.
  31. Savage, Charlie; Goldman, Adam; Benner, Katie (December 9, 2019). "Report on F.B.I. Russia Inquiry Finds Serious Errors but Debunks Anti-Trump Plot". The New York Times.
  32. "Statement of U.S. Attorney John H. Durham". justice.gov. December 9, 2019.
  33. Zapotosky, Matt. "John Durham has a stellar reputation for investigating corruption. Some fear his work for Barr could tarnish it". Washington Post.
  34. "Statement by Attorney General William P. Barr on the Inspector General's Report of the Review of Four FISA Applications and Other Aspects of the FBI's Crossfire Hurricane Investigation". justice.gov. December 9, 2019.
  35. "Horowitz pushes back at Barr over basis for Trump-Russia probe". POLITICO.
  36. Zapotosky, Matt. "Barr's handpicked prosecutor tells inspector general he can't back right-wing theory that Russia case was U.S. intelligence setup". Washington Post.
  37. Benner, Katie; Barnes, Julian E. (December 19, 2019). "Durham Is Scrutinizing Ex-C.I.A. Director's Role in Russian Interference Findings". The New York Times.
  38. Savage, Charlie; Goldman, Adam; Barnes, Julian E. (February 13, 2020). "Justice Dept. Is Investigating C.I.A. Resistance to Sharing Russia Secrets". The New York Times. Retrieved February 29, 2020.
  39. The Editors (November 3, 2011). "Washington's Most Powerful, Least Famous People". The New Republic. Retrieved October 25, 2011.CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
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