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US DoJ launches criminal probe into its own Russia investigation
The US department of justice has turned an administrative review of the Mueller investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 elections into a criminal probe.
The US department of justice has turned an administrative review of the Mueller investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 elections into a criminal probe, enabling investigators to subpoena witnesses, hold grand jury hearings and bring criminal charges, according to news reports.
In effect, it was pointed out, the justice department had opened criminal investigation against its own case, because Robert Mueller’s probe of Russian interference was ordered by then deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
Attorney General William Barr, who has been sceptical of the Russia probe from before he was appointed, ordered a review of the probe by William Durham, the US attorney for Connecticut, in May and himself travelled abroad to press foreign governments to cooperate.
President Donald Trump has long maintained that the Russia probe was a conspiracy by the US deep-state — intelligence and national security set-up — to deny legitimacy to his election and has maintained there was no criminal conspiracy to cooperate with it by him or anyone.
Mueller had said in his findings there was “insufficient evidence” to prove criminal conspiracy, but had identified a number of grounds for obstruction of justice.
It is not immediately clear what potential criminal charges Durham could press, but he is reported to be seeking to interview senior intelligence officials from 2016, when the probe was started based on a tip from an Australian diplomat that a member of the Trump campaign had been approached by Russians with politically damaging information on Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee.
