So where is Durham’s final report? Y’all know he quietly ended his “investigation” after nearly 4 yrs & several million 💵 without 1 arrest of a Democrat from President Obama’s admin & he lost the case he brought against an HRC atty for lying to FBI?
2/purportedly Bill Barr tasked Durham to investigate whether any fed official, employee, or any other person or entity violated the law in connection w the intel, counter-intel, or law-enforcement activities directed at the 2016 presidential campaigns, individuals associated w…
3/those campaigns, & individuals associated with TFG’s admin, including but not limited to Crossfire Hurricane & the investigation of Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller, III.
4/Bill Barr, pompously mischaracterized Robert Mueller's report as exonerating TFG of any possible criminal behavior in the Russia probe, Trump & his toadies made it clear that they planned to do just that.
5/For weeks they pushed their mantra that the 🇷🇺investigation had been a Deep State plot in collusion w HRC & Barack Obama to smear TFG w/out a shred of evidence. Recall this famous Trump exhortation: “the FBI was out to get him bec he believed that the DOJ was loyal …
6/to Obama & Clinton rather than him.
That's just how he 🤔. And those around him who had been infected w various strains of Fox News brain rot also were convinced that HRC had somehow been let off easy while the DOJ was relentlessly hounding Trump for no reason.
That's just how he 🤔. And those around him who had been infected w various strains of Fox News brain rot also were convinced that HRC had somehow been let off easy while the DOJ was relentlessly hounding Trump for no reason.
7/It didn't take long for Barr to assign the "oranges" investigation to the U.S. Attorney from CT, John Durham, best known for organized crime cases & an investigation into the Bush admin's torture program that ended in no accountability for those responsible.
8/After being appointed to look into the origins of the 🇷🇺probe Durham's reputation for integrity unraveled within months when Durham (& Barr) decided to break DOJ protocol & contradict a new IG’s report finding that the FBI acted appropriately in opening the inquiry …
9/into whether TFG campaign was involved in the 🇷🇺campaign to influence the 2016 election. NYT reported at the time that even Durham's allies were surprised bec "they found it out of character for him to intervene in such a high-profile way in an open case." As NYT observed:
10/Mr. Durham's decision to speak out seemed to supply political fuel to Trump, who has repeatedly blasted the 🇷🇺inquiry as a "hoax" & a "witch hunt."
11/In fact, that was the point of the investigation, which is still ongoing after 3 years. Durham's probe has been political from the start, as much a partisan PR stunt as an investigation, w Barr finally appointing Durham as a Special Counsel on his way out the🚪to ensure…
12/that it would continue under the new administration. It's really just a pathetic attempt to provide the Fox News audience with their own version of "it's Mueller time" that so enthralled the Trump resistance in the early years of the administration.
13/It was clear from the start that Durham had wildly over-promised.
Durham’s actual results are embarrassing.
Durham’s actual results are embarrassing.
14/Aside from 1 lame guilty plea from an FBI agent who admitted to changing an email, the entire investigation has been pegged to the case he brought against an atty who worked for a firm that was employed by HRC campaign named Michael Sussman.
15/Durham had been hinting broadly in all the court filings for the last 6 months that he had the goods to prove that HRC was behind the 🇷🇺 investigation. (Talk abt red meat for the slavering Fox fans!) At 1 point he even seemed to suggest that HRC had somehow spied on TFG WH…
16/which was ridiculous on its face & proven to be untrue, needless to say. But it kept the right-wing fever swamp beside themselves w excitement for months Durham was promising that “Trump's revenge would be very sweet indeed.”
17/Not only would the 🇷🇺 investigation's origins be shown to have been wrongly predicated, they might just get to "lock her up" at long last.
But in June, 2022, the trial against Sussman began & it was clear from the start that Durham had wildly over-promised.
But in June, 2022, the trial against Sussman began & it was clear from the start that Durham had wildly over-promised.
18/The prosecution's case rested on the single charge that Sussman lied to the FBI when he brought them a tip & said he was not representing HRC campaign. They did not come close to proving that, & as it unfolded it was obvious that the whole thing was silly in any case since…
19/wait for it…
the FBI had already been looking into the matter at the time!!!
Sussman was acquitted after a short jury deliberation!
the FBI had already been looking into the matter at the time!!!
Sussman was acquitted after a short jury deliberation!
20/Naturally, the inevitable collective primal scream from the sore-loser right was deafening. TFG took to his Truth Social account & wailed: “Our Legal System is CORRUPT, our Judges (& Justices!— which HE appointed btw) …
21/are highly partisan, compromised or just plain scared, our Borders are OPEN, & blah, blah, blah ad nauseam to infinity!
(Read the article if u must know what he said, i refuse to be bothered to add it here).
(Read the article if u must know what he said, i refuse to be bothered to add it here).
22/the article ends…”He's got 1 more case coming up in the fall against a researcher who is also accused of lying to the FBI about something arcane & irrelevant. And this 1 concerns the infamous Steele Dossier! I can hear the 🍾 bottles prematurely popping already.”
23/By way of his social media platform, TFG wrote last month, “The public is waiting ‘w bated breath’ for the Durham Report, which shld reveal corruption at a level never seen before in our country.”
The word “should” did a lot of work in that sentence.
msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-…
The word “should” did a lot of work in that sentence.
msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-…
24/In reality, the longer the political world has waited for the investigation to produce something notable, the more the former president has grown impatient, asking: “Where’s John Durham?” It’s a line Trump repeated in 2020, 2021 and 2022.
25/As it turns out, there’s an answer to the question, though the Republican probably won’t like it. The NYT reported:
“Now Durham appears to be winding down his 3-year inquiry without anything close to the results Trump was seeking.”
“Now Durham appears to be winding down his 3-year inquiry without anything close to the results Trump was seeking.”
26/The grand jury that Durham has recently used to hear evidence has expired, & while he could convene another, there are currently no plans to do so, 3 ppl familiar w the matter said. Durham & his team are working to complete a final report by the end of the year, they said,…
27/& 1 of the lead prosecutors on his team is leaving for a job with a prominent law firm.
There is a degree of irony to the circumstances: For years, Trump World insisted that the 🇷🇺 scandal was pointless but the Durham investigation was real.
There is a degree of irony to the circumstances: For years, Trump World insisted that the 🇷🇺 scandal was pointless but the Durham investigation was real.
28/It now appears these Republicans had it exactly backward: The Russia scandal was real, and the Durham investigation was pointless.
#DurhamFlop #TheReidOut #thebeat #Maddow #lastword #deadlineWH
#DurhamFlop #TheReidOut #thebeat #Maddow #lastword #deadlineWH
29/last source, its priceless:
Durham’s loss was 1 more🥚laid in the fetid henhouse where Barr first enlisted Durham to 🪺in May 2019, tasking him w proving the truth of a lie—TFG’s fav disinfo campaign at the time, that the FBI’s 2016 Trump-🇷🇺investigation was a “witch hunt.”
Durham’s loss was 1 more🥚laid in the fetid henhouse where Barr first enlisted Durham to 🪺in May 2019, tasking him w proving the truth of a lie—TFG’s fav disinfo campaign at the time, that the FBI’s 2016 Trump-🇷🇺investigation was a “witch hunt.”
31/Shoddy decisions & the paucity of results characterize Durham’s whole tenure. Yet there are no signs that he intends to close up shop anytime soon. In fact, he has yet another case pending. Last Nov, Durham’s office indicted Igor Danchenko, an individual who contributed …
32/to the Steele Dossier, & particularly the infamous rumor of a Trump “pee tape.” Danchenko’s trial is scheduled to get underway this fall.
33/In Danchenko’s case, as in Sussmann’s, the indictment is not for any wrongdoing related to the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation. Rather, it’s another case of a prosecution on §1001 charges of subsequently lying to investigators.
34/Maybe Durham will obtain a conviction in Danchenko’s case, & maybe that will give him a face-saving opportunity to pack up & skip town. But everything Durham has done to date has proved not the bang he was brought in to sound but rather a sad, inglorious whimper.
35/ok, so, I admit, I was wrong — its not “over” but it should have been last yr! Anyway, guess we will need to wait until after the midterms to find out the final case results.
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