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New York TimesProsecutor Who Unraveled Corruption in Boston Turns to C.I.A. Tape Case By NEIL A. LEWIS
Published: January 13, 2008
WASHINGTON — In 1999, John H. Durham, a federal prosecutor based in Connecticut, was assigned to wade into a seemingly impenetrable and corrupt network in Boston involving police officers, federal agents and organized crime figures. Sometime this month, Mr. Durham will begin a new assignment, this time setting up in Washington to delve into another arena of complexity and concealment, the Central Intelligence Agency.
As the recently named head of the investigation into the C.I.A.’s destruction of videotapes of secret interrogations, Mr. Durham will again be the outsider trying to apply a straightforward law enforcement template to a complex set of relationships and practices. A career prosecutor, he had been dispatched to Boston years ago by a Democratic attorney general, Janet Reno. This month, he was summoned to Washington by a Republican attorney general, Michael B. Mukasey.
Michael Clark, a former Federal Bureau of Investigation agent who worked with him for years in Connecticut, said that Mr. Durham’s experiences in unraveling the corrupt relationships in Massachusetts as well as in convicting public officials in Connecticut, including former Gov. John G. Rowland, demonstrate why his methods may be well suited to his new task. Mr. Clark, now first selectman in Farmington, Conn., said that the investigation of Mr. Rowland was fraught with political pitfalls and detours.
“John’ s style is dogged and focused,” Mr. Clark said. “Because he is so intent on following the facts, he refused to become involved in any political dimension or detour.” He said Mr. Durham was undeterred by “certain roadblocks people wanted to put in the way.”
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