A key ally of President Trump offered a clue about when U.S. Attorney John Durham could complete his inquiry into the origins of the Russia investigation.
Rep. Jim Jordan, an Ohio Republican, told colleagues during a House Rules Committee meeting on Tuesday that the review is expected to end sometime starting in June.
“His investigation is due to be completed sometime this summer,” Jordan said.
He mentioned it after Rep. Michael Burgess, a Republican from Texas, asked whether “anybody is going to be accountable now,” referring to the “significant errors or omissions” the Justice Department inspector general found in the Justice Department’s and the FBI’s use of British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s dossier when pursuing Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants to wiretap onetime Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
Jordan, who is a member of the House Judiciary Committee, said that is exactly why Attorney General William Barr appointed Durham, the top federal prosecutor in Connecticut, to the task. The congressman also mentioned Kevin Clinesmith, a former FBI lawyer under criminal investigation by Durham after Inspector General Michael Horowitz found he altered a key document in FISA filings related to Page, a U.S. citizen who was suspected of being an agent of Russia but was never charged with wrongdoing.
“I gotta believe that individual at some point is going to be held accountable,” Jordan said.
The meeting on Tuesday was focused on legislation to reform the FISA law while key authorities in it, including roving wiretap powers, the business records provision, and the “lone wolf” amendment, are set to expire on Sunday if not reauthorized.
Durham is reviewing possible misconduct by federal law enforcement and intelligence officials in the Russia investigation, which Trump called a “witch hunt.”
The secretive review turned into a criminal investigation in the fall, allowing Durham the power to impanel a grand jury and hand down indictments. Trump gave Barr the “full and complete authority to declassify information” and ordered the intelligence community “to quickly and fully cooperate” with the investigation into surveillance activities during the 2016 presidential election.
Democrats have criticized the review as a politically motivated scheme to undermine the work of special counsel Robert Mueller and attack Trump’s perceived enemies.
Republicans have cheered on Barr and Durham, hoping they will root out and prosecute “dirty cops” they believe sought to undermine Trump. Georgia Rep. Doug Collins, the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, recently told Fox News he believes Durham will not release a report, but rather the public will hear about the progress the U.S. attorney has made when there is an indictment. “When he’s ready to charge people, he’ll charge people,” Collins said. “And that’s when we’ll know.”
Barr, whose management of the Justice Department is under review by House Democrats, predicted in a December interview that Durham’s investigation may reach an “important watershed perhaps in the late spring, early summer.”
