Durham Didn’t Want to Go After Top Officials Like Comey: Trump

President Donald Trump returns to the White House in Washington on Nov. 29, 2020. Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

U.S. Attorney John Durham didn’t want to go after top officials like former FBI Director James Comey, President Donald Trump alleged on Wednesday.

“We caught Comey cold, we caught McCabe cold. We caught them all,” Trump said during a White House address, referring to Comey and the man who temporarily replaced him, Andrew McCabe.

“We’re still waiting for a report from a man named Durham, who I have never spoken to, and I have never met. They can go after me before the election as much as they want, but unfortunately Mr. Durham didn’t want to go after these people, or have anything to do with going after them before the election. So who knows if he is ever going to even do a report,” the president added.

The swipe came a day after Attorney General William Barr revealed he'd appointed Durham as a special counsel to review the Russia-Trump counter-intelligence probe, among other matters.

Barr appointed Durham in October but kept it secret until Dec. 2.

Barr first directed Durham to review matters related to the 2016 presidential election campaigns in May 2019. That review at some point developed into a criminal investigation.

Only one person has been convicted or pleaded guilty as a result of the investigation. Former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith, whose alteration of an email helped secure spy warrants from a secretive court against Trump campaign associate Carter Page, pleaded guilty in August.

McCabe, who was fired from the FBI after lying, and Comey, who was fired by Trump, have not been charged, nor have any other high-level officials involved in what was known inside the FBI as “Crossfire Hurricane.”

Barr, in his newly revealed order, said Durham is authorized to investigate whether any federal official, employee, or any other person or entity violated the law in connection with intelligence activities directed at the campaigns in 2016, or Trump’s administration, including, but not limited to, Crossfire Hurricane and the investigation of former special counsel Robert Mueller.

Durham shall submit to Barr a final report, and such interim reports as he deems appropriate, “in a form that will permit public dissemination,” Barr added.

United States Attorney John Durham (L) and Attorney General William Barr in file photos. Department of Justice; Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The Department of Justice sent a copy of the order to The Epoch Times but did not answer questions about the order. The department didn’t respond when asked about Trump’s remarks.

Top Democrats criticized the appointment, saying it appeared to violate department regulations. Republicans defended it, calling on their colleagues to treat the special counsel like they did Mueller.

Trump has called out Durham before.

In October, he said he was “very disappointed“ when he heard that Barr reportedly told lawmakers that Durham’s report on Crossfire Hurricane wouldn’t be released before the Nov. 3 election.

“That’s a disgrace. I think it’s a disgrace. It’s an embarrassment,” he said.

“I’ve had to go through it twice now with elections. See, this is what I mean with the Republicans. They don’t play the tough game. They don’t play the tough game. If this were the other side, you would have had 25 people in jail for the rest of their lives, with what we found,” he added.

The report was not released before the election.