A former U.S. Attorney for Connecticut, Nora Dannehy, provided testimony on Wednesday about her resignation from Special Counsel John Durham’s inquiry during an approval hearing for a place on the state’s Supreme Court.
Testifying at her Judiciary Committee hearing in Hartford, Connecticut, Ms. Dannehy broadly confirmed those reports, explaining that her “conscience did not allow [her] to remain.”
She insisted, however, that her resignation was not politically motivated.
“Before I get to the crux of what caused my resignation, I do want to address the issue of first initially joining what some had labeled the ‘Trump DOJ.’ I didn’t return to the Trump Department of Justice,” Ms. Dannehy said. “Politics never played a role in how I was expected to do my job.”
“My experience during the Russia investigation, my decision to resign, I hope reflects my unwavering commitment to the rule of law and to fairness and impartiality,” she continued.
“I had been taught and spent my entire career at the Department of Justice conducting any investigation in an objective and apolitical manner,” Ms. Dannehy told state Rep. Steven Strafstrom, the Democratic co-chairman of the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee, at the beginning of the three-hour hearing.
“In the spring and summer of 2020, I had growing concern that this Russia investigation was not being conducted in that way,” she said. “Attorney General Barr began to speak more publicly and specifically about the ongoing criminal investigation.
“I thought his public comments violated DOJ guidelines.”
Ms. Dannehy explained she was concerned that Mr. Barr’s plan to release a report about the ongoing investigation risked influencing the 2020 presidential election.
“Publicly, he would not rule out releasing that report before the presidential election,” she said. “I had never been asked to write a report about an investigation that was not yet complete. I then saw a version of a draft report, the conclusions of which I strongly disagreed with.”
“Writing a report—and particularly the draft I saw—violated long-standing principles of the Department of Justice. Furthermore, the Department of Justice has a long-standing policy of not taking any public actions in the time leading up to an election that might influence that election.”
“I simply couldn’t be part of it, so I resigned,” she said. ”It was the most difficult personal and professional decision I’ve had to make.”
“Nora Dannehy is a person who knows what she knows, but you also know that she cares,” Mr. Lamont wrote.
“She cares deeply about justice. She’s going to be an extraordinary associate justice on the Supreme Court.”
