Former President Donald Trump Friday night issued a statement asking if special counsel John Durham is still alive, as his probe into the origins of the Russia collusion investigation still has yet to be released, and former National Security Council Chief of Staff Fred Fleitz agreed Saturday on Newsmax TV that is a "good question."
However, Fleitz, now the president and CEO for the Center for Security Policy, a Washington, D.C., think tank, told "The Count" that now that the November election is over and President Joe Biden is in office, the report will not matter anyway.
"In my view, who cares?" Fleitz said. "It's over now. It's not going to have any effect because the election is over. The American people needed this information last November."
Durham, along with other U.S. attorneys who served under Trump was asked to resign by Biden, as is typical when a new president from an opposing party takes office. Durham has resigned as U.S. attorney for Connecticut but stayed on as special counsel on the Russia inquiry.
He has been examining the FBI's Crossfire Hurricane operation, which had investigated the Trump 2016 presidential campaign and allegations of links with Russia for about 2 years. Trump's Attorney General Bill Barr designated Durham as the special counsel in the case last October.
"John Durham had a responsibility to finish his investigation before the 2020 election," Fleitz told Newsmax TV. "This Russia collusion narrative, the weaponization of intelligence against the Trump 2016 campaign, spying on his campaign, this smeared Donald Trump's good name and deserved an answer to what happened. The American people deserved to know."
Durham, however, did not want to issue a report before the election because he did not want it to influence the outcome, Fleitz said, adding "that's unacceptable."
"The American people needed this information, but now we're almost in April 2021 and he still hasn't issued a report," Fleitz said.
And even at this point, if Durham issues a report, nothing will happen, Fleitz added.
"There may be some minor officials who Durham may name guilty of some type of wrongdoing, but the Biden administration is not going to prosecute them," Fleitz said. "They succeeded in what they wanted to do: They damaged Trump's good name, and this had probably had an effect in the 2020 elections – a very close election – and the American people needed to hear from Durham that none of this was true.
"And Durham didn't give them that information."
Meanwhile, the Justice Department and the national security community knew it was in the clear once Biden was inaugurated, Fleitz said.
"The Justice Department is not going to prosecute anyone for misusing our intelligence community against Donald Trump," Fleitz said. "They know they're in the clear. But what worries me is that this is going to him embolden careerists to spy on Republicans again, in the 2022 midterm elections and the 2024 election. I think they'll be able to do it, and they'll be able to do it, knowing that the Justice Department will let them get away with it."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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