{"id":30143,"date":"2019-01-15T20:16:38","date_gmt":"2019-01-16T00:16:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cosmicconvergence.org\/?p=30143"},"modified":"2019-01-15T20:17:46","modified_gmt":"2019-01-16T00:17:46","slug":"top-fbi-lawyer-under-investigation-for-leaks-this-has-never-happened-before","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cosmicconvergence.org\/?p=30143","title":{"rendered":"Top FBI Lawyer Under Investigation for Highly Damaging Leaks&#8212;this has NEVER happened before!"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Former top FBI lawyer James Baker subject of criminal media leak probe, transcript reveals<\/h1>\n<p><!--more-->By Catherine Herridge<br \/>\nFOX News<\/p>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/video.foxnews.com\/v\/embed.js?id=5989264362001&#038;w=466&#038;h=263\"><\/script><noscript>Watch the latest video at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\">foxnews.com<\/a><\/noscript><\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable\">The former top lawyer at the FBI has been under federal investigation for leaking to the media, a letter from House Republicans revealed Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable\">The letter from GOP Reps.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/person\/j\/jim-jordan\">Jim Jordan<\/a>\u00a0and Mark Meadows cited the transcript of a congressional interview with former General Counsel James Baker and his lawyer last fall, where the probe conducted by seasoned U.S. Attorney John Durham was confirmed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou may or may not know, [Baker has] been the subject of a leak investigation \u2026 a criminal leak investigation that\u2019s still active at the Justice Department,\u201d lawyer Daniel Levin told lawmakers, as he pushed back on questions about his client\u2019s conversations with reporters.<\/p>\n<p>Jordan and Meadows\u2019 letter was sent to Durham, the U.S. attorney for Connecticut, and requested additional information about the probe later this month.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;As we continue our oversight and investigative work, we felt it prudent to write to you seeking an update. Without being apprised of the contours of your leak investigation and Baker\u2019s role, we run the risk of inadvertently interfering with your prosecutorial plans,&#8221; they wrote.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/James-A-Baker.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-113757\" src=\"http:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/James-A-Baker-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"image-ct inline\">\n<div class=\"m\"><picture><source srcset=\"https:\/\/a57.foxnews.com\/static.foxnews.com\/foxnews.com\/content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/1470\/828\/James-A-Baker.jpg?ve=1&amp;tl=1 2x\" media=\"(max-width: 767px)\" \/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/a57.foxnews.com\/static.foxnews.com\/foxnews.com\/content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/1862\/1048\/James-A-Baker.jpg?ve=1&amp;tl=1 2x\" media=\"(min-width: 767px)\" \/><\/picture><\/div>\n<div class=\"caption\">\n<h5>James A. Baker, former general counsel for the FBI, was revealed to be the subject of a leak probe.\u00a0<span class=\"copyright\">(Michigan Law)<\/span><\/h5>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The transcript of the closed-door interview and the letter do not include details explaining why the investigation is being led out of the Connecticut office. The status of the investigation is not publicly known.<\/p>\n<p>But the disclosure marks the latest confirmation of a leak investigation involving FBI figures who have since left the bureau.<\/p>\n<p>Last year, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe saw his leak case referred to the U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C.\u00a0McCabe was fired for lying to federal investigators about his role in a media leak regarding the Clinton Foundation\u00a0on the eve of the\u00a02016 presidential election.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><a title=\"View Baker subject of media leak investigation on Scribd\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scribd.com\/document\/397528194\/Baker-subject-of-media-leak-investigation#from_embed\">Baker subject of media leak&#8230;<\/a>\u00a0by on Scribd<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"scribd_iframe_embed\" title=\"Baker subject of media leak investigation\" src=\"https:\/\/www.scribd.com\/embeds\/397528194\/content?start_page=1&amp;view_mode=scroll&amp;show_recommendations=false&amp;access_key=key-9cr2MZ80o0IuHSoJP4fU\" width=\"100%\" height=\"600\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" data-aspect-ratio=\"null\" data-auto-height=\"true\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The letter from the GOP lawmakers cited other concerns that arose as part of their own investigation when Republicans controlled the House:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Committees learned that in some instances, high-ranking DOJ and FBI officials, including the FBI General Counsel James Baker and DOJ Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce\u00a0Ohr, took the self-described \u2018unusual\u2019 step of inserting themselves into the evidentiary chain of custody.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Documents reviewed by Fox News indicate that Ohr became the back-channel between Christopher Steele, author of the controversial and unverified anti-Trump \u201cdossier,\u201d and the FBI after he was fired by the bureau for lying about his contact with the media. According to a January 2018 memo by House Intelligence Committee Republicans on government surveillance practices,\u00a0&#8220;Steele was suspended and then terminated as an FBI source for what the FBI defines as the most serious of violations &#8212; an authorized disclosure of\u00a0his relationship with the FBI in an October 30,\u00a0Mother Jones article.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to the DOJ website, Durham is a seasoned prosecutor who has been tapped by Republicans and Democrats to handle high-profile, national\u00a0controversies.<\/p>\n<p>Durham has held various positions in the District of Connecticut for 35 years, prosecuting organized and violent crime, as well as public corruption. From 2008 to 2012, he also served as the acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, where he investigated the destruction of CIA interrogation tapes of senior Al Qaeda operatives and, prior to that, he reviewed alleged criminal wrongdoing by FBI personnel in Boston connected to the Whitey Bulger case.<\/p>\n<p>Fox News is reaching out to FBI and Baker, as well as the U.S. Attorney\u2019s office in Connecticut, for comment on the new letter.<\/p>\n<p><em>Fox News\u2019 Jake Gibson contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>___<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/former-top-fbi-lawyer-james-baker-is-subject-of-federal-media-leak-probe-transcript-reveals\">https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/former-top-fbi-lawyer-james-baker-is-subject-of-federal-media-leak-probe-transcript-reveals<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former top FBI lawyer James Baker subject of criminal media leak probe, transcript reveals<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cosmicconvergence.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cosmicconvergence.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cosmicconvergence.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cosmicconvergence.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cosmicconvergence.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cosmicconvergence.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30143\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cosmicconvergence.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cosmicconvergence.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cosmicconvergence.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}