“Attorney General William Barr has given extra protection to the prosecutor he appointed to investigate the origins of the Trump-Russia probe, giving him the authority of a special counsel to complete his work without being easily fired,” the AP reports. “Barr said that he had appointed U.S. Attorney John Durham as a special counsel in October under the same federal statute that governed special counsel Robert Mueller in the original Russia probe.” Axios: “It’s an extra layer of protection for Durham to continue investigating possible misconduct by Obama-era intelligence officials past Joe Biden’s inauguration as president.”