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A former Department of Justice-appointed special counsel testified for nearly three hours behind closed doors to discuss FBI reforms with the House’s intelligence panel, the committee’s bipartisan leaders said Tuesday.
The private testimony of John Durham, who was appointed Attorney General Bill Barr during the Trump administration to probe the origins of an FBI investigation into allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 election, came ahead of his public testimony before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday morning.
“It was interesting to hear from Mr. Durham that he has concerns that there are reforms that need to go into place and that there are still issues that need to be addressed,” said Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. “And he was very forthcoming in sharing with us, and I think that we were able to get some information that would be very helpful for us in the work that we have to do on both [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] renewal, FISA reform and also reform issues with the FBI.”
Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the committee, stressed the bipartisan nature of the hearing, adding that members’ focus was on how the federal government can ensure its investigative authorities are “beyond reproach” in matters as sensitive as investigations into top political candidates. Himes was referencing high-profile probes into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private email server and alleged links between Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia.
Durham will testify Wednesday before a committee led by Trump ally Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio). Its membership includes some of House Republicans’ most hardline members, such as Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and Freedom Caucus members Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), Chip Roy (R-Texas) and Dan Bishop (R-N.C.).
“I’m glad that we went first because I think that having Mr. Durham in this environment allowed him to be very forthcoming and very sharing of his thoughts and ideas,” Turner told reporters. “Certainly, tomorrow has a different purpose.”
“The world is different when the cameras are running,” Himes added. “Behind closed doors when the cameras weren’t running, I will tell you that on both sides there was an attempt to get at the truth, rather than what I fear you might see tomorrow, which is an attempt to belie or angle the truth a little bit in the service of one’s political agenda. That didn’t happen in our meeting.”
In his report released last month, Durham concluded the FBI should not have launched the Trump-Russia investigation, but did not recommend any new charges or major changes to how the agency handles these sort of probes.
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