DOJ’s Criminal Investigation

On Friday, not even halfway through the day, the beltway was abuzz with stories that all point to bad news on the Democrats front. The first bombshell early Friday morning was that US Attorney General John Durham’s probe was no longer a review and now a criminal probe. The review was something President Trump had called for as the Mueller investigation was ongoing. Since it ended Attorney General Barr assigned Durham as one of his first tasks as AG.

The next report was confirmation that IG Horowitz report was “nearing completion.” Horowitz was quoted as saying “I can report to you that the process is ongoing and nearing completion, we are working through these issues constructively with both the Department and the FBI. The goal from my standpoint is to make as much of our report public as possible.” Trump has widely called for the report to be declassified and made available to the public.

It was Fox who reported a major change to these stories Friday morning, that the IG report was what caused Durham’s review to become a criminal probe. This is backed by rumors that CIA officials were starting to hire defense attorneys.

Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper appeared flustered on CNN’s 360 with Anderson Cooper when amid struggles to find his words he admitted it would likely be an investigation into him but called the timing of the probe to be “interesting.”

A final and related development was retired General Michael Flynn’s lawyer, Sydney Powell, filed a motion which outlined allegations that the FBI manipulated official records, and other misconduct such as leaking to the press.

Powell’s motion accuses disgraced FBI attorney, Lisa Page, of editing the Flynn 302 as well as accusing Clapper of telling a Washington Post reporter to “take the kill shot on Flynn”. A Clapper spokesman has denied this as absurd. Powell’s motion urges the court to dismiss the entire prosecution of Gen Flynn.