'I simply couldn't be part of it': Trump-era prosecutor explains why she resigned

Former federal prosecutor Nora Dannehy resigned from the John Durham special counsel investigation into the FBI's conduct in the Russia probe, in an "explosive" meeting that was made public earlier this year. Now, according to POLITICO, Dannehy is revealing one of the biggest sources of her frustration: then-Attorney General William Barr's comments on the case, and an interim report he wanted to release on it.

The details came out in a hearing with Connecticut state lawmakers at her confirmation hearing for the state Supreme Court, where she said, “I simply couldn’t be part of it. So I resigned.”

"Durham, a former U.S. attorney for the District of Connecticut, was appointed in the spring of 2019 by Barr to investigate potential wrongdoing by government officials and others in the early days of the FBI probe into ties between the Trump 2016 presidential campaign and Russia," said the report. "Trump expected the investigation to expose what he and his supporters alleged was a 'deep state' conspiracy to undermine his campaign, but the slow pace of the probe – and the lack of blockbuster findings – contributed to a deep wedge between the president and Barr by the time the attorney general resigned in December 2020."

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“I had been taught and spent my entire career at Department of Justice conducting any investigation in an objective and apolitical manner,” Dannehy said in her hearing. “In the spring and summer of 2020, I had growing concerns that this Russia investigation was not being conducted in that way. Attorney General Barr began to speak more publicly and specifically about the ongoing criminal investigation. I thought these public comments violated DOJ guidelines.”

Utimately, the Durham report was a near-total bust, with one FBI lawyer pleading guilty and receiving probation for altering evidence for a surveillance warrant, and two witnesses charged for lying to the FBI but acquitted. Beyond that, Durham proposed some minor reforms of how the FBI runs investigations, but failed to uncover a massive conspiracy.

Barr, a longtime GOP loyalist who also served as attorney general under George H. W. Bush, eventually fell out completely with his former boss over the efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.