Durham probe findings could cause lasting damage to ‘trust’ in intel community: Former federal prosecutor
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US intelligence, law enforcement agencies served a political party: Andy McCarthy
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A former federal prosecutor told Fox News Monday the conclusions of the Durham report compound the already tenuous public trust in the American intelligence community.
Andrew McCarthy, the former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said the release of the Durham report’s investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia collusion allegations only adds fuel to the reputational fire at the FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies.
The report, which George W. Bush-era U.S. Attorney for Connecticut John Durham was tapped to compose, found the FBI “failed to uphold their mission of strict fidelity to the law” in launching its lengthy probe into whether Donald Trump or his campaign colluded with the Kremlin to defeat Hillary Rodham Clinton in the 2016 election.
McCarthy said it appears the FBI was “put in the service” of the Democratic Party in the hopes of aiding an electoral victory that ultimately never materialized when Trump defeated Clinton.
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When its efforts proved unsuccessful, those involved doubled down to stymie Trump’s ability to govern, McCarthy said.
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“The scandalous thing here is that I think we now know in the history of this that’ll be written, the intelligence and law enforcement apparatus of the government was put in the service of the politics of one party in connection not only with an election, but when that failed, it was sustained for another two years in order to hamstring a sitting United States president who, no matter what you think of him, was the elected president, that needed to govern the United States,” he said. “And they did this for partisan reasons.”
Citing the “Russia” connection between the Trump investigation and the intel officials’ attempts to throw cold water on the veracity of Hunter Biden’s laptop, McCarthy and “Your Story” anchor Martha MacCallum discussed whether the intelligence community can actually discern what a Russian intelligence operation truly is.
“You know, there’s bad and worse here. Maybe you’re right that they wouldn’t know you know Russian disinformation if that hit them over the head like a hammer,” McCarthy said.
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“[W]hat if the truth is worse?” he continued. “What if they do know what an influence operation is, but they’re just lying about it? And if you can’t trust them, then we can’t trust them to wield those powers.”
McCarthy said the U.S. cannot just strip the FBI of its law enforcement powers because the bureau is still needed to protect the republic elsewhere. However, their behavior puts its necessary and proper functions at risk.
“When they roll the dice for partisan reasons, what they put in the middle of the table are these powers that we need to protect the United States,” he said.
“What are we to make of the intelligence community?” he later asked, noting how the Hunter laptop letter further erodes public trust in institutiones.
Later, former Bush adviser Karl Rove noted that Durham did not take his responsibility lightly in investigating the Russia probe origins and crafting his report.
Rove said Durham has long been a prime example of a prosecutor who puts law above politics.
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Rove noted the former Connecticut federal prosecutor did not dither in his mission to root out alleged systemic corruption in the Constitution State – going so far as to successfully secure a guilty plea from then-Connecticut Gov. John Rowland, a fellow Republican in a high-profile corruption investigation.
Rowland resigned and pled guilty in 2004 to criminal conspiracy in what the plea agreement characterized as defrauding the IRS and the people of Connecticut – in connection with the acceptance of more than $100,000 in trips and gifts.
Durham however also assisted in Democrat-led investigations, such as one in 1999 when then-Attorney General Janet Reno asked him to look into alleged relationships between FBI agents in Massachusetts and the Boston mob.