WASHINGTON — A federal prosecutor who was helping lead the investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia probe has resigned from the Justice Department, a spokesman said Friday.
Nora Dannehy was a top prosecutor on a team led by U.S. Attorney John Durham of Connecticut, who was appointed last year to lead an investigation into how the FBI and other federal agencies set out to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and whether the Trump campaign had coordinated with the Kremlin.
A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s office in Connecticut confirmed Dannehy’s departure, which was first reported by The Hartford Courant, but declined to comment further.
Durham’s appointment by Attorney General William Barr was made public soon after the release of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report into Russian election interference. In the year and a half since, he has questioned former law enforcement and intelligence officials — former CIA Director John Brennan among them — about decisions made during the course of the Russia probe.
The investigation, which Barr has acknowledged was slowed by the coronavirus pandemic, has not yet produced the results that supporters of President Donald Trump had been hoping for. There is also pressure to wrap up given that Justice Department policy frowns on investigative actions that could affect an election, and because it’s not clear that Durham’s work would be permitted to continue if Trump loses in November and Democratic leadership assumes control at the Justice Department.
Trump himself has indicated that he wants results soon, saying Thursday that Durham was a “very, very respected man” and that his work would involve a “report or maybe it’s much more than that.”
The investigation has produced one criminal charge so far, against a former FBI lawyer accused of doctoring an email related to the surveillance of a former Trump campaign adviser. But the prosecution did not allege a broader conspiracy within the FBI, and the conduct it involved had largely been laid out in a Justice Department inspector general report from last December.
It is not clear if Durham will be able to wrap up before the election, though Barr did not rule out the possibility of additional criminal charges.
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