oh, yeah, i think it was definitely appropriate because i think it was necessary to avoid public confusion. john durham is a u.s. attorney, serving in connecticut. he was hand selected by that man, ag barr, to investigate the origins of this russia investigation over and above the doj s own internal inspector general report, which we ve been talking about, because it was issued yesterday. but durham took the unusual step of releasing a statement, reacting to the ig report while he s in the midst of his own work on the same thing. his statement read, in part, and we quote, based on the evidence collected to date and while our investigation is ongoing, last month we advised the inspector general that we do not agree with some of the report s conclusions as to predication and how the fbi case was opened. that, right there, is not done.
more to do this to go to this extreme level, to look at the connections between four campaign officials and russia. barr is putting a lot of weight and emphasis on the durham investigation, that is sort of the next chapter in the russia saga, a larger look at the origins of the investigation.er we saw this highly unusual thing yesterday where durham put out a statement in the middle of this report coming out, basically to say that he disagreed with the sort of central contention about the decision to open the investigation. we usually don t hear from investigators mid investigation. barr also saying today he thinks that durham will be done by the middle of next year, by the summer. often times in investigations we re not told when the end is going to be.
u.s. attorneys work for the justice department. they do not traditionally comment on ongoing matters. and on nicolle wallace s broadcast today, the former inspector general at doj reacted to what durham has done here. to directly criticize the findings of an 18-month investigation and a tremendous amount of work is something that really i can t even understand and wrap my head around. it is completely inappropriate. it s unprecedented. and i think in some people s minds, including mine, it should be grounds for disciplinary referral against durham. that s saying something. back with us, paul butler, former federal corruption prosecutor notabley. these days a georgetown law school professor and frank figliuzzi, counterintelligence. a tweet from the president
chris wray, the fbi director, said in defending the criticism that the ig leveled really came in with against them. it is an affront to these people who are professionals, who work with rigor and care and lots and lots of unpaid hours. it s an insult to call them that. the facts that come out don t match with what the administration wants to hear. mike, outline for our viewers what trump and bar are distorting about what the inspector general actually said. barr is taking on the issue of whether the fbi cleared the threshold to open up such an important investigation. and barr is saying the fbi, in his view, should have needed
there s not much evidence it s helping or hurting. the match-ups between trump and biden or warren, sanders, whoever it is, they re pretty much where they were weeks ago. i m sure you re sympathetic with the temptation to reach back in the mueller report and throw more into the hopper of articles of impeachment. right. i m guessing you concur with the decision to keep it to two. do you think they made the case to the average democratic voter around the country and if not, can they in the next few weeks? definitely, brian. the average democratic voter isn t specifically driven by this the desire for impeachment and removal is driven by the base. left, young people and african-americans in particular are the strongest in impeachment and removal. a lot of those groups doubted that nancy pelosi was going to do anything. you look at the polling, we re 50, 51% will say yes.