Former NSA Director Rogers “Very Cooperative” With Durham Russia Probe

The man who some consider the first ‘whistleblower’, after taking what Joe DiGenova called “immense risks” briefing the Trump team on the Obama’s administration’s surveillance, has been cooperating with the Justice Department’s probe into the origins of the counterintelligence investigation of the Trump presidential campaign’s alleged ties to Russia, according to four people familiar with Rogers’s participation.

The Intercept’s Matthew Cole reports that retired Admiral Michael Rogers, the former Director of the National Security Agency, has met with John Durham on multiple occasions, according to two people familiar with Rogers’s cooperation. While the substance of those meetings is not clear, Rogers has cooperated voluntarily, several people with knowledge of the matter said.

While Durham has reportedly recently sought former CIA Director John Brennan’s emails, call logs, and other documents from the C.I.A., Cole notes that Rogers’s voluntary participation, which has not been previously reported, makes him the first former intelligence director known to have been interviewed for the probe.

“He’s been very cooperative,” one former intelligence officer who has knowledge of Rogers’s meetings with the Justice Department said.

In addition to Brennan, and now Rogers, Politico and NBC News have previously reported that Durham intends to interview former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.

As Cole concludes, the Mueller probe, the recent inspector general’s report, and now the Durham investigation have done little to bridge the yawning political divide between Trump (and his supporters), who continue to see him as the victim of a politically motivated “witch hunt,” and career intelligence and national security officials, who view the Durham investigation as an effort to punish those who led U.S. efforts to investigate Russia’s election meddling. In May, Trump gave Barr the unprecedented authority to review and declassify intelligence related to the Russia investigation, further inflaming national security veterans.

Durham’s investigation has also sought information from foreign governments. 

Although AG Barr said there is likely many months before Durham’s report is complete, it would appear, by the leaks of his contacts, that the federal prosecutor is narrowing in his scope on those who were really responsible for all the “mistakes” that were made.