The Trump-appointed special counsel who investigated claims the FBI’s investigation into Russian interference was faulty could become a crucial figure in James Comey’s prosecution—as a defense witness.
John Durham—who was appointed under the first MAGA administration by then-Attorney General William Barr to investigate the origins of the bureau’s probe into allegations of Kremlin electoral meddling in 2016—told Eastern District of Virginia prosecutors in August he’d been “unable to uncover evidence that would support false statements or obstruction charges against the former FBI director,” ABC News reported Monday.
But the DOJ ignored Durham and last month brought charges against Comey for allegedly lying to a Senate Committee in 2020 about whether he authorized media leaks from inside the FBI about the bureau’s investigations into Russian interference.
Durham’s comments to prosecutors earlier this summer, which ABC suggests were backed up by further interviews with officials at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C., would significantly undercut the DOJ’s claims against Comey if aired before a judge.
Comey is being defended by Patrick Fitzgerald, a former federal prosecutor who previously participated in the prosecution of Osama bin Laden, and who led investigations into the Valerie Plame Affair.
It is not clear at this stage whether he plans to call Durham as part of Comey’s defense—but the disclosure that Durham, a longtime legal conservative, could find no reason to prosecute Comey opens a possible strategy for the defense.
Fitzgerald, a longtime friend of Comey, was regarded as the DOJ’s fiercest prosecutor, one who will be facing a much less experienced prosecution when the case begins in federal court later this week with Comey’s arraignment.
Trump made the shock decision to effectively fire Eric Siebert as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia in September after he’d told the MAGA administration any charges against Comey would be unlikely to hold water before a court.
His replacement Lindsey Halligan saw fit to override the office’s recommendations and indict Comey anyway. “The balance of power is a bedrock principle of our democracy, and it relies upon accountability and forthright presentation of facts from executive leadership to congressional oversight,” Halligan said in a statement on those charges.
Formerly a member of Trump’s personal legal defense team, Halligan has zero prosecutorial experience, but did twice run for the title of Miss Colorado USA. Her decision to bring the charges has raised alarm the MAGA administration may now be pushing ahead with a long-promised campaign of retribution against Trump’s political enemies.
“There’ll be others,” Trump has said of the proceedings against Comey, which had followed after he literally called for Attorney General Pam Bondi to charge Comey, among other longstanding nemeses, in a vicious Truth Social screed last month. “They weaponized the Justice Department like nobody in history. What they’ve done is terrible.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the Justice Department and Durham’s representatives for comment.
The importance Trump is putting on prosecuting Comey, his longtime nemesis, was underlined by the revelation that the current FBI director, Kash Patel, had suspended an FBI trainee for refusing to “perp walk” Comey.
Patel, whose faltering performance as FBI director has been noted inside the White House, then confirmed the revelation in an angry post on X which wrongly claimed that the agency had perp-walked Roger Stone, the far-right pro-Trump provocateur, and Steve Bannon, the far-right pro-Trump podcaster, before their first appearances in court.
