Former US President Donald Trump has said that he reckons the inquiry by special counsel John Durham has "a lot coming" despite remaining mum on the progress for months. In his interview with the Epoch Times, Trump expressed confidence that the special counsel would "fully expose" the FBI's RussiaGate probe and called Durham's work "one of the most important jobs" in the US.
"These are bad people. So, I hope John Durham, for the good of the country, comes up with everything that you know took place, and that everybody knows took place, because it has been exposed. It would be really nice to have it fully exposed".
Trump went on to call the FBI's RussiaGate probe, officially known as "Crossfire Hurricane", the "crime of the century" and went on to allege that his political opponents "worked with Russia" to damage him.
Moscow repeatedly denied attempting to meddle in US domestic affairs during the 2016 election and dismissed all allegations against it.
The former president noted in his interview that he'd hoped that Durham would have been able to complete his work earlier – in 2020. Trump added, however, that it would not have affected the election outcome in any case.
"It would have been nice to have been done before the election because they cheated viciously and crazily [...] It would have been good if the voters would have known that. But it didn’t matter because I won the election by a lot anyway. So, it didn’t. Honestly, I don’t think that was the big defining moment."
Durham Probe's Findings
Durham, a former US attorney for the District of Connecticut, has already issued several indictments throughout his investigation. He specifically charged FBI attorney Kevin Clinesmith for doctoring an email to secure an extension to the wiretap of Trump campaign's adviser Carter Page. Clinesmith pleaded guilty.
The special counsel also indicted cybersecurity lawyer Michael Sussmann for lying to the FBI, when he claimed he was not working for anyone as he reported potentially suspicious contacts between the Trump Organisation and a Russian bank.
Durham determined that he worked for the Hillary Clinton campaign at the time. Sussmann pleaded not guilty.
The special counsel's inquiry follows a similar investigation by Justice Department inspector general Michael Horowitz. He ruled that the FBI made serious mistakes when it was investigating Trump's contacts and wiretapping its adviser based on the debunked Steele Dossier, but refused to prosecute anyone in the agency. Durham disagreed with his results.
Furthermore, the special counsel had Steele's primary analyst, Igor Yurievich Danchenko, arrested on charges of lying to the FBI. The dossier compiled by former MI6 agent Christopher Steele was the first to allege the since-debunked collusion with Russia and was one of the FBI's main sources of information to apply for wiretapping warrants.