Republican California Rep. Devin Nunes said Sunday that a special counsel needs to be appointed to help ensure the Durham investigation is concluded and not swept under the carpet.
“Every day that ticks by it’s going to become an absolute necessity that a special counsel is appointed on the way out,” Nunes told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.”
John Durham, the U.S. attorney for Connecticut, is still investigating how the FBI and other government agencies gathered intelligence on then-candidate Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign. (RELATED: Time Is Running Out For Revelations From The Trump-Russia Probe)
“Now that doesn’t mean that [President-elect Joe] Biden wouldn’t fire the special counsel but at least you’d have a special counsel office setup, with money, so that this investigation can continue, because I’m not seeing the indictments that I should be seeing when you take into the account that I’ve made 14 criminal referrals involving dozens and dozens of people,” Nunes continued.
The congressman and ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee said there is a growing frustration among many who have waited for the release of an anticipated Durham report. Nunes said there is “a growing concern that Durham is not going to come out with anything and then Biden and Obama are going to be back in and they’re going to shut this investigation off.”
President Trump called it “a disgrace” that a report would not be released prior to the 2020 presidential election.
Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, who is also the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he would be “shocked” if Durham did not recommend more indictments.
Nunes said that Attorney General William Barr “should be the one to appoint” a special counsel since he has been the Trump administration official closest to the investigation.
“I think he’s a straight shooter and I think he’s probably also disappointed — I haven’t spoke to him — but he should be the one that would have to ensure that this investigation is continued on to the end.”
Attorney General William Barr arrives in the Rose Garden before President Donald Trump introduces then-7th U.S. Circuit Court Judge Amy Coney Barrett, 48, as his nominee to the court at the White House September 26, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Barr has repeatedly said that he believes the FBI spied on the Trump campaign. (RELATED: Report: Durham Using Grand Jury To Investigate Debunked Trump-Russia Allegation)
In April 2020, Barr described the evidence from the Durham investigation as “troubling.” He also said he expected a formal report to come out of the investigation — though he did not specify whether it would be publicly released.
Nunes said Sunday he believes the Durham investigation could reveal how former President Barack Obama was “the first president that oversaw using a political campaign, using the FBI and the [Department of Justice] to open an investigation into your rival campaign. That’s as big of a fraud as you get in the history of the United States of America.”