Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) tore into Special Counsel John Durham on Wednesday during a House Judiciary Committee hearing and accused the Trump-era prosecutor of being part of the “cover-up.”
Gaetz, known for his flamethrowing rhetoric, lit into Durham for not prosecuting more individuals that he believed were part of a conspiracy that fueled the FBI’s investigation into allegations the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia.
“Do you see how silly this looks? You’ve found the lawyer, you found the phones, but the actual dude who got ordered by Western intelligence to go start this thing you couldn’t find,” Gaetz declared as he grilled Durham.
“It’s, it’s kind of laughable. It seems like more than disappointment. It seems like you weren’t really trying to expose the true core of the corruption that you were trying to. You were trying to go at it another way,” Gaetz raged.
“Yeah. As we said in the report, I said in my opening remarks, we pursued the facts as best we could,” Durham replied.
“How about this fact, Mr. Durham? The entire Mueller team does a hard reset on their Apple phone in synchronization to wipe away evidence. Did you investigate that?” Gaetz then asked.
“I read that,” Durham replied.
“Did you investigate it? Who gave the order on the Mueller team to wipe the phones?” Gaetz demanded.
“Yeah. That was not something that we were asked to look at and we didn’t,” Durham replied.
“That’s not true, Mr. Durham,” Gaetz shot back.
“That is not true, because I am holding the document that authorizes your activity, and it specifically says the investigation of Special Counsel Robert Mueller,” Gaetz declared holding up a document.