Sen. Ron Johnson complained Wednesday that special counsel John Durham has kept information from the public and lawmakers during his nearly three-year probe.
In a Fox News interview with Sean Hannity, the Wisconsin Republican cited the length and murkiness of the Durham investigation as one of the reasons he’s skeptical of appointing a special counsel to probe the business dealings of President Biden’s son Hunter.
Mr. Johnson emphasized that Mr. Durham has “high integrity” but said U.S. senators have been denied access to information about what Mr. Durham is investigating.
“Looking at how long it’s taken him to get the information out,” Mr. Johnson said of the Durham investigation. “We were denied access to information during the John Durham probe, so there is a real problem with the special counsel.”
A spokeswoman for Mr. Johnson said he wasn’t talking about a specific information request, but rather expressing his frustration that special counsel probes are generally shielded from Congress and the public.
“The senator was making the point that congressional and public access to information related to investigations within the political realm are always thwarted when there is an active criminal investigation. That is a problem with special counsels — they prevent information relevant to elections from being made public in a timely manner. That has certainly been the case with the Durham investigation,” spokeswoman Alexa Henning said.
“Corruption isn’t necessarily illegal but the facts are relevant to who we elect as leaders. The corporate media obviously thought the public should know about possible Trump campaign collusion with Russia — even though that turned out to be completely false – but they couldn’t care less when it’s about Hunter, James, and Joe Biden and their foreign financial entanglements,” she continued.
In the Fox interview, Mr. Johnson said those issues underscore concerns about having a special counsel look into Hunter Biden’s business affairs. He also noted that the special counsel would be appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland, who was picked for the job by the president.
“The only problem with the special counsel appointed by Merrick Garland is I won’t have any faith in him,” Mr. Johnson said.
Complaints that Mr. Durham has been dragging his feet have long dogged his investigation into the FBI and Justice Department decision-making in the early stages of the Russia collusion probe.
Even former President Donald Trump repeatedly griped about the length and lack of public information about the investigation.
The probe, which started in the spring of 2019, has picked up steam in recent months. Mr. Durham scored two key indictments last fall, filing criminal charges against Clinton campaign attorney Michael Sussmann and Igor Danchenko, who was a key source for British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s debunked dossier.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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