{"id":577920,"date":"2021-06-30T18:06:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-30T22:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=577920"},"modified":"2021-06-30T18:06:02","modified_gmt":"2021-06-30T22:06:02","slug":"senators-say-doj-official-could-have-conflict-of-interest-in-trump-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/senators-say-doj-official-could-have-conflict-of-interest-in-trump-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Senators Say DOJ Official Could Have Conflict of Interest In Trump Case"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fsenators-say-doj-official-could-have-conflict-of-interest-in-trump-case%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=577920&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/maxresdefault-5-e1620661982549.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Two Republican senators are questioning whether a conflict of interest could prohibit a Department of Justice national security appointee from taking part in an investigation into the Obama administration\u2019s surveillance of the Trump campaign.<\/p>\n<p>Sens. Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) and Ron Johnson (R., Wis.) in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.judiciary.senate.gov\/imo\/media\/doc\/grassley_johnson_to_justice_dept.hennesseyconflicts.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a letter<\/a> this week asked Attorney General Merrick Garland about Susan Hennessey\u2019s role in the Justice Department\u2019s National Security Division. Hennessey, who previously held posts at the Brookings Institution and CNN, was a vocal proponent of the now-debunked theory that the Trump campaign conspired with the Russian government to influence the 2016 election. <em>Politico<\/em> reported in May that Hennessey joined the National Security Division as senior counsel.<\/p>\n<p>Hennessey has also criticized an investigation being led by John Durham, a federal prosecutor looking into whether the government broke the law during its surveillance of Trump associates. Grassley and Johnson asked Garland whether Hennessey has played any role in the Durham probe.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We have concerns about her role and potential impact on ongoing matters, including Special Counsel John Durham\u2019s inquiry,&#8221; they wrote Garland.<\/p>\n<p>Grassley and Johnson cited a <em>Washington Free Beacon<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/biden-administration\/dojs-top-national-security-lawyer-slammed-investigation-into-government-wrongdoing-in-surveillance-of-trump-aide\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">report<\/a> about tweets in which Hennessey criticized Durham while promoting the debunked Trump-Russia collusion narrative.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Durham has made abundantly clear that in a year and a half, he hasn\u2019t come up with anything. I guess this kind of partisan silliness has become characteristic of Barr\u2019s legacy, but unclear to me why Durham would want to go along with it,&#8221; she wrote in a since-deleted tweet on Dec. 1, 2020.<\/p>\n<p>William Barr, attorney general under former president Donald Trump, designated Durham to serve as a special counsel on Oct. 19, 2020. The Biden administration has allowed Durham to remain in that role, but he was asked to step down as U.S. attorney for Connecticut.<\/p>\n<p>Grassley and Johnson asked Garland whether Hennessey has access to any drafts or final reports from the investigation, and whether or not she has been recused from the investigation.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Ms. Hennessey\u2019s apparent bias against Durham\u2019s inquiry presents a clear conflict that makes it impossible for her to be objective and credible with respect to any elements relating to the Durham inquiry, should she have access to any of it,&#8221; they wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Grassley and Johnson also asked Garland for an update on the investigation and whether the attorney general agreed with Barr that a report of the investigation should be released to the public.<\/p>\n<p>Republicans have also expressed frustration at Durham\u2019s investigation. The prosecutor has obtained just one conviction during his investigation, which began as an administrative inquiry in April 2019. Former FBI attorney Kevin Clinesmith pleaded guilty in August 2020 to altering an email from the CIA regarding its past relationship with Carter Page, a former Trump campaign aide who was the target of FBI surveillance.<\/p>\n<p>The Justice Department did not immediately respond to questions raised in the GOP letter to Garland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two Republican senators are questioning whether a conflict of interest could prohibit a Department of Justice national security appointee from taking part in an investigation into the Obama administration\u2019s surveillance &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":2313789,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/maxresdefault-5-e1620661982549.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"Senators Say DOJ Official Could Have Conflict of Interest In Trump Case","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-577920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/maxresdefault-5-e1620661982549.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"Senators Say DOJ Official Could Have Conflict of Interest In Trump Case","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=577920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577920\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2313789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}