Is Benczkowski still at DOJ? He is a national security compromise.

July 10, 2022

By Giffin Connolly

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., broke ranks with Democrats to move forward with the confirmation of Brian Benczkowski to lead the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division.

As the frenzy (click here) surrounding President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh kicks into high gear this week, the Senate is voted Wednesday to confirm a divisive new director for the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice.

In late winter 2017, Brian Benczkowski, who now awaits Trump’s signature to become the newest assistant attorney general at the DOJ, briefly represented Alfa Bank, a Russian bank with close ties to Russian government officials that media outlets previously reported was a subject of the FBI’s probe of the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia.

No one at Alfa has been charged with wrongdoing, and it is unclear if the bank is still part of any probe.

Leading Democrats in the chamber wrote a letter to the president last week arguing Benczkowski cannot “credibly oversee” the DOJ Criminal Division’s involvement in Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation and the criminal investigation of Michael Cohen, the president’s former personal lawyer....