Attorney General William Barr told Fox News on Thursday night that there are “significant developments” coming before the election in U.S. Attorney John Durham’s criminal investigation into the origins of the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign in 2016.
Barr said that some developments will be made public as soon as tomorrow.
“There are two different things going on,” Barr said. “One, I’ve said that the American people need to know what actually happened, we need to get through the story of what happened in 2016 and 2017, now, out. That will be done.”
“The second aspect of this is, if people crossed the line, if people involved in that activity violated the criminal law, they will be charged,” Barr continued. “And John Durham is an independent man, highly experienced, and his investigation is pursuing apace. There was some delay because of COVID, but I’m satisfied with the progress, and I’ve said there are going to be developments, significant developments, before the election, but we’re not doing this on the election schedule.”
“We’re aware of the election, we’re not going to do anything inappropriate before the election, but we’re not being dictated to by this schedule. What’s dictating the timing of this are developments in the case, and there will be developments. Tomorrow, there will be a development in the case – it’s not an Earth-shattering development, but it is an indication that things are moving along at the proper pace as dictated by the facts in this investigation,” Barr continued.
Barr later added, “When we feel we can prove a crime beyond a reasonable doubt, it will be charged, I can tell you that.”
WATCH:
Breaking News: AG Bill Barr says there are *significant developments* coming in the Durham investigation before the election, including as soon as tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/7TlmYDPKtM
— Jason Rantz on KTTH Radio (@jasonrantz) August 14, 2020
Durham has been praised for his tenacity, fairness, and experience in prosecuting cases under both Democrat and Republican administrations.
“He is aggressive, tireless and fair,” said former U.S. attorney for Connecticut Deirdre Daly. “He has been tapped by the Justice Department under previous Democratic and Republican administrations to conduct sensitive and significant investigations, so he has done this before for both sides of the aisle, so to speak.”
“What’s critically important here is that he is independent and apolitical,” Daly added.
Durham had originally started out by conducting an administrative review of the events that transpired regarding the FBI’s surveillance of the Trump campaign. However, the administrative review quickly turned into a criminal investigation in response to things that Durham allegedly found during the review.
Bret Baier and Jake Gibson of Fox News reported last October that “based on what he has been finding, Durham has expanded his investigation, adding agents and resources, the senior administration officials said. The timeline has grown from the beginning of the probe through the election and now has included a post-election timeline through the spring of 2017, up to when Robert Mueller was named special counsel.”
“Attorney General Bill Barr and Durham traveled to Italy recently to talk to law enforcement officials there about the probe and have also had conversations with officials in the U.K. and Australia about the investigation, according to multiple sources familiar with the meetings,” Baier and Gibson added.
This report has been updated to include additional information.
