Durham Probed Trump's Financial Crimes But Didn't Press Charges

Special counsel Robert Durham, appointed by then-Attorney General Bill Barr, uncovered possible financial crimes by Donald Trump but made no attempt to prosecute them, The New York Times revealed in a massive bombshell report published after a months-long investigation, David Badash of the New Civil Rights Movement (NCRM) reported for AlterNet.

Photo Insert: Special counsel Robert Durham was appointed by then-Attorney General William Barr.

“Barr and Durham never disclosed that their inquiry expanded in the fall of 2019, based on a tip from Italian officials, to include a criminal investigation into suspicious financial dealings related to Trump. The specifics of the tip and how they handled the investigation remain unclear, but Durham brought no charges over it,” the Times’ Charlie Savage, Adam Goldman, and Katie Benner report.

The potentially explosive tip linking Trump to certain suspected financial crimes came during a trip Barr and Durham, his special counsel, took together. They “decided that the tip was too serious and credible to ignore.”

But Durham never filed charges, and it remains unclear what level of an investigation it was, what steps he took, what he learned and whether anyone at the White House ever found out.

The extraordinary fact that Durham opened a criminal investigation that included scrutinizing Trump has remained secret.

In another shocking revelation, the Times reports Durham “used Russian intelligence memos — suspected by other US officials of containing disinformation — to gain access to emails of an aide to George Soros, the financier and philanthropist who is a favorite target of the American right and Russian state media.”

The Times does not explain how Durham obtained the Russian disinformation.

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