More than 40 Republican senators are calling on Attorney General Merrick Garland to release Special Counsel John Durham’s Crossfire Hurricane investigation to the public. The report documents the origins of the 2016 Russian collusion hoax.
The senators wrote that Americans were disturbed to learn that agents weaponized surveillance powers for political purposes.
“The truth pursued by this investigation is necessary to ensure transparency in our intelligence agencies and restore faith in our civil liberties. Thus, it is essential that the Special Counsel’s ongoing review should be allowed to continue unimpeded and without undue limitations,” the letter states.
In 2019, then-Attorney General William Barr appointed Durham to review the FBI’s 2016 presidential election probe. Durham was then made special counsel in October 2020.
When Garland was questioned by Republicans in February before the Senate Judiciary Committee, he declined to acknowledge that he would release the special counsel’s report, telling Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, “I am a great believer in transparency” but “I would, though, have to talk with Mr. Durham and understand the nature of what he’s been doing and the nature of the report.”
Merrick Garland, @JoeBiden's nominee for attorney general, won't explicitly commit to releasing John Durham's report into the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation. pic.twitter.com/dTooCqrDLG
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) February 22, 2021
There are increasing questions as to whether Durham’s probe will continue past Sept. 30, when the government’s fiscal year concludes. The prosecutor is reportedly gathering evidence for a grand jury report on FBI employees who “sparked the Russia investigation into Trump,” as reported by the Wall Street Journal.
“Attorney General Merrick Garland must pledge to publicly release the full report and allow Special Counsel Durham to continue his investigation uninhibited past September 2021,” Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn said.
“We are over two years into the investigation of how the Obama-Biden FBI spied on an incoming president, and we still do not have answers. America’s national security apparatus was weaponized to take down President Trump, and the American people deserve to know how this occurred,” she said.
