Breaking from the AP:
The Justice Department opened a criminal investigation into the destruction of CIA interrogation videotapes and Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey appointed an outside prosecutor to oversee the case….
“The Department’s National Security Division has recommended, and I have concluded, that there is a basis for initiating a criminal investigation of this matter, and I have taken steps to begin that investigation,” Mukasey said in a statement released Wednesday.
Mukasey named John Durham, a federal prosecutor in Connecticut, to oversee the case.
Durham is the deputy U.S. attorney in Connecticut, where he worked with Kevin O’Connor, who’s currently the acting #3 at the department. We’ll have more on him in a second.
Update: The AP doesn’t have this quite right. Durham is not an “outside counsel.”
