Criminal investigation opened on first coup attempt

Fox News:

U.S. Attorney John Durham's ongoing probe into potential FBI and Justice Department misconduct in the run-up to the 2016 election through the spring of 2017 has transitioned into a full-fledged criminal investigation, two sources familiar with the investigation told Fox News on Thursday night.

One source added that DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz's upcoming report on alleged FBI surveillance abuses against the Trump campaign will shed light on why Durham's probe has become a criminal inquiry. Horowitz announced on Thursday his report would be available to the public soon, with "few" redactions.

The investigation's new status means Durham can subpoena witnesses, file charges, and impanel fact-finding grand juries.

Fox News reported on Tuesday that Durham's probe had expanded significantly based on new evidence uncovered during a recent trip to Rome with Attorney General Bill Barr.
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A source in the Italian Ministry of Justice told The Daily Beast earlier this month that Barr and Durham were played a taped deposition made by Joseph Mifsud, the professor who allegedly told ex-Trump aide George Papadopoulos that the Russians had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton. Mifsud reportedly was explaining to investigators in the deposition why people would want to harm him, and why he needed police protection.

Papadopoulos has suggested he was connected with Mifsud as part of a setup orchestrated by intelligence agencies.

Sources told Fox News that Durham was "very interested" to question former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and former CIA Director John Brennan, an anti-Trump critic who recently dismissed the idea. The New York Times reported Thursday that Durham's criminal review has prompted some CIA officials to obtain criminal legal counsel in anticipation of being interviewed.

Brennan and Clapper were at the helm not only when Mifsud spoke to Papadopoulos, but also when an unverified and largely discredited dossier, written by British ex-spy Christopher Steele and funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee, was used to help justify a secret surveillance warrant against former Trump adviser Carter Page in the run-up to the 2016 election. (The Times' reporting on Thursday, which overtly framed Durham's probe as politically tainted without evidence, did not mention the Steele dossier at all.)

The FBI apparently obscured the fact that the Clinton campaign and DNC funded the dossier in its warrant application, telling the secret court only that the dossier was prepared at the behest of an unidentified presidential campaign.
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Those behind the coup used the media to gin up support for their bogus investigation and what appears to be an entrapment program. With the failure of that coup attempt after the Mueller probe found no evidence to support their scheme, the Democrats led by Adam Schiff morphed into an second coup attempt based on false allegations about the President's diplomatic efforts to uncover evidence of the first scheme in Ukraine and also to gather evidence about the reason for a huge payment to Biden's son by Ukraine. The second coup attempt is ongoing in secret by Schiff who is selectively leaking misleading information from his Star Changer proceedings.