Last updated on July 18th, 2023 at 12:24 pm
Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) said that Barr’s appointment of Durham as a special counsel violated DOJ rules.
Chairman Nadler said in a statement provided to PoliticusUSA:
This order only further erodes the credibility of the Justice Department under Attorney General Barr’s tenure. On its face, this appointment appears to violate the Department’s own regulations—which stipulate, among other requirements, that ‘the Special Counsel shall be selected from outside the United States Government.’ The sitting U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut is simply not eligible for the job. In addition, the Attorney General has provided no real explanation for his decision to appoint a Special Counsel when he did, or for his decision to delay notification to Congress until today.
And we should not lose sight of the larger picture: in the waning days of the Trump Administration, the Attorney General has once again used the powers of his office to settle old scores for the President. This order is one more desperate attempt to feed President Trump’s fixation on events that have been investigated over and over again, including by the Department’s independent Inspector General. It is a distraction to divert attention from the President’s failure to contain the COVID-19 pandemic and his resounding defeat in the presidential election.
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I have asked the Attorney General to call me and provide an explanation for this order without delay.
If the appointment is in violation of DOJ guidelines, there will be nothing stopping the next attorney general from rescinding the appointment and shutting Durham down. Barr and Trump are betting that shutting Durham down would make it look like Biden is hiding something, and damage his presidency.
The Durham special counsel appointment was all about sabotaging Joe Biden.
Barr, like everyone not named Trump, has known for months that Biden was likely to win the election so the appointment of Durham was an act of sabotage that deserves to be undone by the next attorney general.
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Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
