Who Is John Durham?

JOHN HENRY DURHAM, THE U.S. ATTORNEY for Connecticut, is a self-effacing, modest, deeply religious, hard-working prosecutor. Unlike a fair number of U.S. attorneys across the country, he also shuns the limelight relentlessly, even though, on several occasions through a storied career, the limelight has nonetheless found him.

But not like this. Not like now.

Appointed by Donald Trump to lead Connecticut’s U.S. attorney’s office in 2017, Durham was tapped by Attorney General William Barr in May of this year to investigate the origins of the investigation into candidate and then President Donald Trump—and his alleged ties to Russia. Depending on where you fall on the red-to-blue spectrum, this makes him either an avenging angel, come to right the wrongs inflicted on Donald Trump by an evil deep state—or a deeply untrustworthy partisan hack, tasked to do the dirty work of an allegedly illegitimate president and his attorney general sidekick.

So which is he? Maybe a little of both now.

Until very recently, Durham had, somewhat magically, avoided being part of the partisan bludgeoning. That was all due to his record—and his reticence in talking about it. Though a registered Republican, Durham, now 69, earned chits from Connecticut Democrats for successfully prosecuting former Republican Governor John Rowland