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WASHINGTON – The Attorney General of Canada, William P. Barr, has instructed the Attorney General of Connecticut to examine the origins of the investigation into Russia. According to two people close to the case, President Trump has long asked that the forces of order be moved. who insist that the scrutiny of the Trump campaign was lawful.
John H. Durham, a United States attorney in Connecticut, has always been a special prosecutor charged with investigating potential wrongdoing among national security officials, including links between F.B.I. and a crime official in Boston and the charges of C.I.A. detainee abuse.
His investigation is the third known investigation centered on the opening of an FBI. counterintelligence investigation conducted during the 2016 presidential campaign on the possible links between Russian interference in the elections and Trump's associates.
Departmental Inspector Michael E. Horowitz looks separately at the investigators' use of wiretap applications and informants, and whether a political bias against Mr. Trump has influence on investigative decisions. And John W. Huber, the US attorney in Utah, has reviewed some aspects of the investigation conducted in Russia. His discoveries have not been announced.
In addition, at Capitol Hill, Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, announced her intention to also examine some aspects of the work of law enforcement over the coming months. . And Republicans conducted their own investigations when they controlled the House, including publishing details on the use of F.B.I. wiretap.
Thomas Carson, a spokesman for Durham's office, declined to comment, as did a spokeswoman for the Department of Justice. "People from the M department are helping to review the activities of the summer of 2016," Barr said during his testimony to Congress on May 1, without giving further details.
In 2008, Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey instructed Durham to investigate the destruction of video cassettes by the ICA in 2005 showing torture of terrorism suspects. A year later, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. expanded Mr. Durham's mandate to also consider whether the agency had violated laws relating to the abuse of detainees in his custody.
Barr expressed concern over Russia's investigation into the Congressional testimony, particularly the monitoring of Trump's associates. "I think the espionage actually took place," he said. "The question is whether this was adequately planned. And I'm not saying it was not an adequate prediction. But I have to explore that. "
His use of the term "espionage" to describe a court-authorized surveillance aimed at understanding the interference of a foreign government in the election has led to criticism that he was echoing accusations made to political accusations by Mr. Trump and his Republican allies that the FBI unfairly targeted the Trump campaign.
Last week, the F.B.I. director, Christopher A. Wray, defended the office, claiming that he was unaware of any illegal surveillance and had refused to call the work of the "espionage" agents. The former F.B.I. and officials of the Ministry of Justice defended the genesis of the investigation, claiming that it was well founded.
However, the role of Mr. Durham – to assign him essentially a special mission but no special powers – also aimed to remove the unusual appointment of another special council like Robert S. Mueller III, a role that allows for greater independence in daily.
Mr. Trump and the Republicans have long urged senior officials of the Justice Department to appoint one to investigate the presumed political enemies of the President and the reasons why Mr. Trump's associates were under surveillance.
Trump's calls to investigate the investigators have multiplied following the revelation of Mueller's findings last month. Mr. Mueller's investigators cited "Insufficient evidence" to determine that the president or his advisers engaged in a criminal plot with Russia.
The Mueller report reaffirmed that the F.B.I. opened its investigation based on legitimate factors, including revelations that a Trump campaign advisor, George Papadopoulos, told an Australian diplomat, a close ally of the United States, that he had been informed of the theft of Democratic emails by the Russians.
"It would have been extremely, highly inappropriate for us not to pursue this – and aggressively," said James Baker, who was F.B.I.'s General Counsel. in 2016, Friday. with the Lawfare podcast.
In the first investigation of Russia, the F.B.I. investigated four Trump associates: Mr. Papadopoulos; Paul Manafort, president of the Trump campaign; Michael T. Flynn, First Counselor to the President for National Security; and Carter Page, another foreign campaign advisor.
Flynn and Papadopoulos subsequently pleaded guilty to lying to the F.B.I. as part of the investigation; Mr. Manafort was also convicted of tax evasion and other charges brought by the special advocate, who resumed the investigation in May 2017 and pleaded guilty to conspiracy.
FBI. Federal agents and prosecutors also obtained the agreement of the Secret Court, Foreign Intelligence Watch, to obtain a wiretap from Mr. Page after he left the campaign. Mr. Trump's allies indicated that the warrant was a major proof that law enforcement officials were abusing their authority, but the investigation was initiated on the basis of separate information. . nearly 500 search warrants and approximately 500 witness hearings.
Law enforcement officials also strongly criticized the use of an informant – a typical investigative step – to secretly report Mr. Page and Mr. Papadopoulos after they left the campaign and for their safety. be relied on Democratic Party-funded opposition research gathered in a dossier by Christopher Steele. , former British intelligence officer, also a member of the FBI informer.
The investigators cited the record in a long footnote in Mr. Page's wiretapping application, warning the court that the person who had ordered Mr. Steele's search was " likely to seek information to discredit "the Trump campaign.
The Inspector General would be examining whether law enforcement officials deliberately misled the intelligence court, which also approved three renewals of the warrant. The latest June 2017 application was signed by Rod J. Rosenstein, the Deputy Attorney General, who defended the decision last month in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.
It is also said that Mr. Horowitz scrutinizes how the F.B.I. Steele and another informant, Stefan A. Halper, an American academic who taught in Britain. The officers asked Mr. Halper to determine if Mr. Page and Mr. Papadopoulos were in contact with Russians. Mr. Barr said that the Inspector General could complete his investigation in May or June.
Durham is also investigating whether Mr. Baker had leaked unauthorized information to the media, according to two House Republicans close to Mr. Trump, representatives Jim Jordan of Ohio and Mark Meadows of North Carolina, who disclosed in a letter to Mr. Durham in January, they had learned of the existence of this investigation.
While they implied that this was related to the investigation of Russia, another witness to Mr. Durham's investigation of Mr. Baker, Robert Litt, the former Attorney General of the United States. Office of the national intelligence director, came to say that he had been questioned and that the investigation has nothing to do with Russia. Mr Baker said last week that he was convinced that he had done nothing wrong and that he would be exonerated.
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