If former President Barack Obama went to bed early on Thursday, he woke up the next morning to bad news.
Attorney General William Barr promised a “development” in the investigation into Obama administration’s alleged surveillance of President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign would be released later today.
During his interview with Fox News star Sean Hannity, Barr said the development wasn’t “earth-shattering” — but was going to be released to show the investigation by U.S. Attorney John Durham is “moving along at the proper pace as dictated by the facts in this investigation.”
“There are two different things going on, Sean. I said the American people need to know what actually happened, we need to get the story of what happened in 2016 and ’17 out. That will be done,” Barr promised. “The second aspect of this is, if people crossed the line, if people involved in that activity violated criminal law, they will be charged.”
Barr promised that Durham would get to the truth, and that politics and the upcoming presidential election wouldn’t impact the timing of the investigation.
“John Durham is an independent man, highly experienced, and his investigation is pursuing apace. There was some delay because of COVID, but I’m satisfied with the progress and I’ve said there are going to be developments, significant developments, before the election,” the attorney general promised. “But we’re not doing this on the election schedule.”
“We’re aware of the election,” Barr added. “We’re not going to do anything inappropriate before the election. But we’re not being dictated to by this schedule. What’s dictating the timing of this are developments in the case.”
Heading into a contentious general election in November, Trump and his allies have looked to Durham’s investigation as the last opportunity to hold accountable officials they say wronged the president. Durham is a veteran federal prosecutor with decades of Justice Department experience. He’s investigated FBI corruption related to the handling of Boston mobster Whitey Bulger and later the CIA’s harsh overseas interrogations of terror suspects.
He was named last year by Barr to investigate the origins of the Russia investigation.
Durham’s investigation is one of multiple inquiries the department has undertaken in connection with the FBI’s probe into potential coordination between Russia and the 2016 Trump campaign. Those include an internal review of the Justice Department’s handling of the Flynn investigation, and an inspector general report that was issued last December.
Unlike those inquiries, which were focused on Justice Department employees, Durham’s mandate is much broader, spanning the activities of the CIA and other agencies across government — which is why it’s taking a significant amount of time.
Durham has been scrutinizing the intelligence community’s assessment that Russia interfered in the election in support of Trump, and what information the Obama administration had when it reached that conclusion.
Barr has said the inquiry is far broader than just the FBI’s flawed applications to monitor a former Trump campaign adviser, and covers actions taken after the election, too.
For example, Justice Department spokesperson Kerri Kupec said in May that Durham’s investigation will include a review of unmasking requests during the course of the Russia investigation.
The issue gained attention earlier this month when newly declassified information showed that multiple intelligence and Obama administration officials asked the National Security Agency to disclose to them, or unmask, the name of an American that had been concealed in classified intelligence reports. That American was revealed to be Gen. Michael Flynn.
Kupec said John Bash, a U.S. attorney in Texas who previously worked inside the Trump White House, has been selected to specifically review the issue.
Kupec acknowledged that unmasking isn’t inherently wrong — in fact, requests have been more common in the first years of the Trump administration than they were at the end of Obama’s tenure — but said “the frequency, the motivation and the reasoning” behind the Flynn unmasking request may be problematic.
Barr has hinted at a resolution during the summer, though precisely when the investigation will end is an open question. Democrats fear an “October surprise” that could help Trump’s re-election chances, which Barr denied on Hannity’s show.
Over the course of months, Durham has conducted interviews and spoken with government figures in the U.S. and abroad, traveling last year with Barr to meet Italian government officials. In a pattern with unmistakable echoes of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, current and former officials have lined up a who’s who of Washington attorneys to navigate them through the probe.
Though the work continues, it is unclear how much it has been affected by the coronavirus pandemic, which has restricted travel and complicated access to some government buildings in the Washington area.
Durham himself hasn’t said much about the investigation. But his main public statement — coming just after Inspector General Michael Horowitz issued a report saying the Russia investigation had been opened for a legitimate basis — was telling.
In the statement, released through the Justice Department, Durham said he disagreed with the inspector general about the investigation being properly predicated. Horowitz has acknowledged that Durham disputed that there was a sufficient basis to open a full investigation, which gives the FBI more intrusive tools than a preliminary one.
Barr has been public that the investigation is now criminal in nature while Trump and his allies, inside and outside the White House, frequently attack by name former Obama officials who they see as deserving targets of Durham’s scrutiny.
Trump and his supporters hope the investigation will uncover misconduct and support the president’s claims that the Russia investigation was a politically motivated “witch hunt.”
If so, that would undoubtedly be bad news for Obama and his legacy.
The Associated Press contributed to this article