Schiff, who focused on defending special counsel Robert Mueller from being terminated by President Trump’s attorney general, but repeatedly suggested that Biden’s yet-to-be-named chief law enforcement officer could end the Durham probe. The move by Barr to appoint a Special Counsel means the probe will go on until it is finished and no Presidential order can stop it as it is now an independent government sanctioned investigation.
“The appointment is not consistent with the language of the statute that he’s relying on and can be rescinded, I think, by the next attorney general. I would presume the next attorney general will look to see if there is any merit to the work that John Durham is doing and make a rational decision about whether that should continue at any level,” Schiff said during a Tuesday appearance on MSNBC's The Beat, later adding that “I think the next attorney general will have every opportunity to examine, to repeal, or to allow the investigation to continue if the next attorney general thinks there is anything, any part of it that has any merit.”
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The California Democrat was using a different method when it came to defending Mueller from Trump’s attorney general selection, grilling the president’s termination of former Attorney General Jeff Sessions and his choice of Matthew Whitaker to serve as acting attorney general in late 2018, prior to Barr’s nomination in early 2019.
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“It’s a flawed appointment, but the biggest flaw from my point of view is that he was chosen for the purpose of interfering with the Mueller investigation. He auditioned for the part by going on TV and saying he could hobble the investigation, and ethically, he should have absolutely nothing to do with the investigation,” Schiff said of Whitaker in a November 2018 appearance on ABC’s This Week, one of the multiple TV appearances after Democrats took the House where he said that Mueller must not be fired, adding, “we will expose any involvement he has in it.
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He needs to know that if he takes any action to curb what Mr. Mueller does, we are going to find out about it, we are going to expose it.”
Barr announced Tuesday that in October, Durham had been chosen to serve as a special counsel tasked with examining any breaches of law related to the inquiries conducted by the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane operation and, later, Mueller’s team.
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In Barr’s appointment application, he mentioned the regulations overseeing special counsels, which note that “the Special Counsel shall be selected from outside the United States Government.” It is vague how that would square with Durham proceeding to serve as a federal prosecutor from Connecticut.
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An official with the Justice Department backed Barr’s efforts, telling the Washington Examiner that “attorneys general have often appointed prosecutors to act as special investigators, either under the special counsel regulations or outside them.”
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