It's becoming more and more apparent that the Trump regime is counting on a massive October Surprise that involves the possible indictment of several Obama administration officials, and the people responsible for it, Attorney General Bill Barr and US Attorney John Durham, are now facing pushback from their own people who see the writing on the wall.
Federal prosecutor Nora Dannehy, a top aide to U.S. Attorney John H. Durham in his Russia investigation, has quietly resigned from the U.S. Justice Department probe - at least partly out of concern that the investigative team is being pressed for political reasons to produce a report before its work is done, colleagues said.
Dannehy, a highly regarded prosecutor who has worked with or for Durham for decades, informed colleagues in the U.S. Attorney’s office in New Haven of her resignation from the Department of Justice by email Thursday evening. The short email was a brief farewell message and said nothing about political pressure, her work for Durham or what the Durham team has produced, according to people who received it.
Durham’s office, who has never even acknowledged that Dannehy was in Washington working for him, had no immediate comment on the resignation.
Durham recruited Dannehy to join his team after he was appointed by Attorney General William Barr more than a year and a half ago to examine the the FBI’s legal justification for a disputed counterintelligence investigation that looked for ties between President Donald J. Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russian efforts to meddle in the election.
Dannehy is a career prosecutor who worked closely with Durham before leaving the U.S. Attorney’s office about a decade ago for a corporate position in the defense industry. Durham persuaded her to return to the justice department and, withing weeks, join his team in Washington in the spring of 2019.
Colleagues said Dannehy is not a supporter of President Donald J. Trump and has been concerned in recent weeks by what she believed was pressure from Barr - who appointed Durham - to produce results before the election. They said she has been considering resignation for weeks, conflicted by loyalty to Durham and concern about politics.
Durham is notoriously circumspect and neither he nor members of his team have revealed anything about the direction of their work. But Durham associates, none of whom have specific knowledge of the investigation, have said recently that it is their belief he is under pressure to produce something - perhaps some sort of report - before the presidential election in November.
The fix is in, folks. The Durham investigation is a sham.
This is somebody John Durham went out of his way to get back on to his team, and 18 months later she has resigned knowing exactly what the appearance of her doing so would mean. She could have stuck around and said nothing in order to support her boss.
But she resigned.
This is a message, and the message is Bill Barr is planning to use the Durham investigation to win the election in the next few weeks.