Durham For Accountability

This Wall Street Journal article today about A.G. Barr appointing U.S. Attorney Durham is worth reading. However, in my honest opinion, it is mild and "safe" for the general public's consumption since the WSJ cadre are, in essence, moderate conservatives who identify the voters who support the president, who they dislike, as "Trumpians", but tolerate only because he's made them richer than they even imagined. In my opinion, if no convictions are forthcoming from this investigation of the investigators, then they'll see just how right they are about demanding heads on a pike.

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Attorney General William Barr has assigned U.S. Attorney John Durham to investigate possible abuses by law enforcement and intelligence officials in the 2016 election campaign, and the reaction has been predictably partisan. Trumpians are demanding heads on pikes while liberals are calling it a hunt for conspiracies that didn’t exist. We see it as a necessary step toward accountability and restoring public confidence in America’s enforcement agencies.

Mr. Durham comes with more experience than even special counsel Robert Mueller in navigating U.S. law enforcement, including the FBI and intelligence services. He uncovered rogue FBI behavior in the case of Boston mob boss Whitey Bulger, and former Attorney General Michael Mukasey tasked him to look at the CIA’s destruction of videos of its terrorist interrogation program. As a U.S. Attorney, Mr. Durham will have the power to convene a grand jury and subpoena people outside the government. Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz has been looking into

some of the same questions, but he lacks similar power. Mr. Durham can also pick up any criminal referrals from Mr. Horowitz’s looming report.

Mr. Durham doesn’t strike us as the type who will answer to anyone’s political agenda, and he may not bring criminal indictments. He didn’t in the CIA case. But appointing someone of his standing and experience is important to getting to the truth about the FBI counterintelligence probe of Trump campaign officials, the FBI’s apparent misleading of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to get a warrant against Trump adviser Carter Page, and other seeming abuses.

Investigating potential FBI or CIA abuses is arguably more important to American democracy than the Russia collusion probe. Tens of millions of Americans suspect that public officials interfered in the presidential election. Especially because Mr. Mueller did not investigate the FBI he previously led, someone needs to hold abuses to account or clear the air if nothing illegal took place.