Biden installs a critic of Durham investigation at DOJ

 Washington Free Beacon:

Though an investigation found that the U.S. government abused the surveillance system to target a Trump aide, the Department of Justice's latest hire slammed a probe into the origins of that wrongdoing as "partisan silliness."

In a now-deleted tweet, Susan Hennessey, who was appointed on Monday as general counsel of the Justice Department's national security division, criticized special counsel John Durham's attempts to determine whether U.S. intelligence agencies improperly surveilled Donald Trump's presidential campaign when trying to identify Russian interference in the 2016 election. The national security division handles espionage and foreign-agent investigations.

Durham's inquiry has largely tracked a Justice Department inspector general's investigation into false claims the FBI made to obtain warrants to surveil Carter Page, a former Trump campaign aide.

The inspector general said the FBI made more than a dozen "significant" errors and omissions in the surveillance applications. The report was not as critical of Justice Department officials, though attorneys in the national security division did approve of the error-filled warrant applications.

The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment about whether Hennessey will play any role in the Durham probe.

Durham, the former U.S. attorney for Connecticut, was picked in April 2019 by then-attorney general William Barr to lead a Justice Department investigation into the Russia probe. Durham was designated to serve as special counsel over the investigation on Oct. 19, 2020.

Prior to joining the Justice Department, Hennessey was a senior fellow in national security at the Brookings Institution and the executive editor of the Lawfare blog. She has criticized Durham in the past, saying after he was appointed special counsel that he "hasn't come up with anything" of substance during his investigation.
...

Hennessey was a poor appointment.  She has a history of being wrong on many issues and when she is it is usually because of her political ideology.  She apparently bitterly clung to the discredited Steele report long after it was shown to be Russian disinformation.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Should Republicans go ahead and add Supreme Court Justices to head off Democrats

29 % of companies say they are unlikely to keep insurance after Obamacare

Bin Laden's concern about Zarqawi's remains