Special counsel John Durham leaned on Russian intelligence memos to access emails from an aide to George Soros, according to a report.
The memos were given to the CIA by a Dutch spy agency and featured analysis from Russian intelligence about alleged conversations that involved American victims of Russian cyberattacks, the New York Times reported. Durham then used the memos as justification to flex grand jury power to get access to the emails from the Soros aide, according to the report.
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Durham reportedly wanted the emails to prove that the Russian memos were authentic. The Russian memos detailed purported plans by Hillary Clinton to target her then-rival Donald Trump by tying him to the public leaking of Democratic National Committee emails in 2016, which were allegedly acquired by Russian hackers.
Initially, Durham asked a federal judge for an order granting him access to information about emails from Leonard Benardo, an executive vice president of Soros’s Open Society Foundations, according to the report.
Buried in the Russian memos were accusations that Benardo and former DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz discussed how former Attorney General Loretta Lynch pledged to prevent the inquiry into Clinton’s emails from getting carried away, the Washington Post reported. Lynch famously had a 2016 meeting with former President Bill Clinton at an airport tarmac, though she denied any allegations of impropriety.
Durham was reportedly rejected twice by a judge in his bid for Benardo’s emails, who concluded the memos were too weak of a justification to impede upon Benardo’s privacy. Ultimately, Durham opted to circumvent the court decision by leaning on grand jury powers to pursue the emails, but there is no evidence he cited them in cases his investigation later pursued, the New York Times reported.
Benardo and the foundation reportedly complied with the demands instead of challenging Durham in court. It was not reported whether Durham subpoenaed Benardo or whether he simply threatened it. Benardo denied that he had communications with Schultz as alleged in the memos.
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In 2019, Durham was tapped to investigate the FBI’s examination of Russian interference in the 2016 elections, according to former Attorney General William Barr. He later became a special counsel for the Justice Department on that issue.
Ironically, one of the key gripes President Donald Trump and many of his supporters had with the FBI’s Russia investigation was the use of the Steele dossier, a highly questionable document that made incendiary accusations against Trump. The recent revelations about Durham’s investigation indicate that he deployed a similar tactic when seeking Benardo’s emails.
Durham is working on writing up his final report for his inquiry.
