By Donald Jeffries
The long-awaited report from special counsel John Durham concluded—to no one’s surprise—that the attempt to connect Donald Trump’s presidential campaign to Russia was “seriously flawed.” The report criticized those within the FBI who had caused “severe reputational harm” to the Bureau by pushing a wild and easily discredited theory.
Click the Link Below to Listen to the Audio of this Article
In the closing months of the Trump administration, the Durham report raised the hopes of Trump supporters that its supposedly imminent release would help bring down Hillary Clinton and all his other conniving enemies. Two and a half years later, the actual release will bring no indictments or prosecutions of those who overtly attempted to frame Trump and perpetrate a great lie.
We’ve known for some time that an official CIA memo documents then-CIA Director John Brennan stating that connecting Trump and Russia was Hillary’s idea, during an August 2016 briefing that included President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, and FBI Director James Comey.
Brennan’s handwritten notes indicate that he briefed all these officials on the “alleged approval by Hillary Clinton on July 26, 2016 of a proposal from one of her foreign policy advisers to vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by Russian security forces.” Furthermore, this involved a ludicrous effort “tying him to [Vladimir] Putin and the Russians’ hacking of the Democratic National Committee.”
Based on this clear-cut evidence of the Clinton campaign’s attempt to fraudulently distort the facts about the 2016 presidential election, shouldn’t she have been indicted? Guess again.
Durham didn’t bring a single high-level indictment for what Trump has called “the crime of the century.” Many in Republican circles expected seemingly suspect officials from the Obama administration, like Comey, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, Brennan, and others to be prosecuted. But instead, Durham only issued three indictments, all of lower-level officials, none of which resulted in prison time.
Meanwhile, Clinton lawyer Michael Sussman and Igor Danchenko, the source for the laughable “Steele dossier,” were both inexplicably acquitted by jurors. Former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith pleaded guilty to altering an email used for a wiretap application against former Trump aide Carter Page. He was sentenced to a year of probation.
There is no way that Durham’s investigation can be considered anything other than a colossal failure. It basically reinforced the fact that Democratic Party officials are absolutely above the law at this point.
Durham’s report is filled with the kind of milquetoast language that should warm the hearts of Stupid Party loyalists everywhere. The FBI called its investigation into “collusion” between Trump and Russia “Crossfire Hurricane.” Durham boldly concluded that the investigation was rushed and a departure from normal FBI intelligence gathering. This, of course, is ridiculous, given the FBI’s long history of dishonesty and corruption, at least since the days of the infamous Counter Intelligence Program (Cointelpro).
The report states, “Neither U.S. law enforcement nor the intelligence community appears to have possessed any actual evidence of collusion” between the Trump campaign and Russia. Durham weakly chastised officials for their “confirmation bias” favoring an investigation of Trump, and the fact they “ignored or simply assessed away” evidence that was inconsistent with Clinton’s ridiculous pet conspiracy theory.
Guns blazing, Durham noted that, “Based on the review of Crossfire Hurricane and related intelligence activities, we conclude that the [Justice] Department and FBI failed to uphold their important mission of strict fidelity to the law in connection with certain events and activities described in this report.”
The FBI defended itself from this mild tongue lashing, maintaining that its leadership had “already implemented dozens of corrective actions, which have now been in place for some time. Had those reforms been in place in 2016, the missteps identified in the report could have been prevented.”
Revealing his limited hangout strategy, Durham rebuked special counsel Robert Mueller in the gentlest manner, merely pointing out that he didn’t establish a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia but crediting his investigation with detailing “extensive election interference” by the Kremlin, and repeated contact between Trump associates and Russia.
In contrast to Durham’s abysmal record, Mueller secured convictions and guilty pleas from some six Trump-connected individuals. In 2020, the GOP, despite controlling the Senate Intelligence Committee, supported the intelligence community’s unproven allegations that Russia “interfered” in the 2016 election to help Trump. Durham paid tribute to Mueller’s investigation and other partisan probes, declaring that “the contributions they have made to our understanding of Russian election interference efforts are a tribute to the diligent work and dedication of those charged with the responsibility of conducting them.”
House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) hopes to get Durham to testify before his committee. Trump reacted by telling Fox News that Comey and other officials should pay a “heavy price” for a “treasonous charade.”
It is doubtful any of the criminals involved with the “Russiagate” scam will face justice.
