Sen. Josh Hawley urged Attorney General Merrick Garland on Wednesday to ensure that the wife of national security adviser Jake Sullivan and other Justice Department employees with ties to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign recuse themselves from special counsel John Durham’s investigation.
In his letter to Garland, Hawley (R-Mo.) described the Clinton campaign as “a criminal enterprise involving lawyers, Big Tech, and current Biden Administration officials.
“The question now is whether anyone will be held accountable,” the senator added.
Hawley was responding to a court filing last week in which Durham alleged the Clinton campaign paid for computer research to establish a false narrative linking then-candidate Donald Trump to Russia.
“The indictment implicates Jake Sullivan, who currently serves as President Biden’s national security adviser,” the Republican noted. “His wife, Margaret Goodlander, currently serves as your counsel in your personal office and is herself close to Hillary Clinton, who attended Sullivan and Goodlander’s wedding.”
Sullivan served as a policy adviser to Clinton during her presidential bid and has acknowledged that he helped spread rumors about the Trump campaign’s supposed ties to Russian officials.
Goodlander has not been named in or connected to the Durham probe — which is focused on the origins of the FBI Trump-Russia investigation.
Sen. Josh Hawley asked that Margaret Goodlander, the wife of national security adviser Jake Sullivan (above), recuse herself from “any consideration of the Durham investigation.” EPA“Others have already called for her to be recused from any consideration of the Durham investigation,” Hawley wrote. “I am calling on you to set a clear example and instruct Ms. Goodlander, and all of your other employees potentially implicated in the Clinton Campaign, to formally recuse from the Special Counsel’s investigation.”
Additionally, Hawley asked Garland to respond by Feb. 25 with a list of DOJ employees recused from the Durham probe and commit to “ensuring the independence and integrity of the Special Counsel Durham’s investigation.” The senator asked Garland to confirm whether the DOJ has any open investigations into first son Hunter Biden.
Hawley’s request comes almost one week after Durham alleged that attorney Michael Sussmann “assembled and conveyed” spurious claims tying the Trump Organization and Moscow-based Alfa-Bank “to the FBI on behalf of at least two specific clients, including … the Clinton campaign.”
Special counsel John Durham alleged in a court filing that Hillary Clinton’s campaign paid for computer research to dig up dirt on Donald Trump. U.S. Department of JusticeIn September 2016, Sussmann allegedly told then-FBI general counsel James Baker that he was not working on the campaign’s behalf when he handed over documents purportedly detailing the supposed Trump Organization link with Alfa-Bank.
However, Durham claims that Sussmann repeatedly billed the Clinton campaign for calls and meetings with tech executive Rodney Joffe and the campaign’s general counsel, Marc Elias, in which they “coordinated and communicated” about the allegations.
Sussmann pleaded not guilty last September.
In the days that followed the court filing, dozens of Republicans — including Trump — have publicly called for “consequences” and “justice” for those potentially involved.
Former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulous told Fox News this week that the original Trump-Russia investigation was a “master class in deception.”
“This was literally about manufacturing a situation around Trump and his people that made it seem as if all of them, including the president and his family, were somehow colluding or in the works with the Russians,” Papadopoulos said.
In his letter, Sen. Josh Hawley called Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign a “criminal enterprise.” Getty Images“What we’re witnessing was a master class in deception, propaganda and trade craft,” he added. “In this case, I think there were so many vested interests in a Hillary Clinton presidency — that’s why you see all of these actors activated the way they were.”
The former campaign adviser helped trigger the FBI investigation in early 2016, after he was told by Joseph Mifsud, a Maltese professor, that Russians had emails that could harm Clinton’s campaign.
Papadopoulous relayed the information to Australian diplomat Alexander Downer, who then told the FBI. Papadopoulous was later charged with making a false statement to the FBI — specifically about the timing of his meeting with Mifsud.
“This wasn’t just about collecting dirt. It was about planting dirt,” he said. “This is what people have to understand.”
“I was set up.”
If Republicans take back the House in the November midterm elections, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has said he is committed to further investigating Durham’s findings — which he called “troubling” in a statement to The Post.
In the wake of these revelations, former President Donald Trump has called for consequences for those involved. REUTERS“Special Counsel John Durham’s continued investigation into the Russia hoax is essential to getting to the truth and protecting our democracy,” McCarthy said.
“Democrats and legacy media may want to sweep this alarming report under the rug, but if House Republicans earn the majority, we will use our oversight tools to determine whether federal funds were used, whether federal office-holders abused their power, and investigate other disturbing elements of this spying scheme to ensure nothing like it ever happens again,” he added.








