Durham's Attempt to Discredit Trump's Enemies Is Falling Apart

[Galraedia]

When Donald Trump’s attorney general appointed John Durham to investigate what Trump insisted was a deep-state conspiracy against him, a question hovered: What exactly was Durham thinking? Durham had a respectable résumé as a prosecutor in a career that did not seem to lead straight into a role as Trump’s Roy Cohn.

Was he simply accepting the role out of diligence and the understanding that, if he found no crimes, he could put Trump’s absurd charges to rest? Or — unlikely but possible — would he uncover real proof of a criminal conspiracy at the FBI to undermine Trump? Or had Durham undergone the same Fox News–induced brain melt that has turned figures like Barr, Giuliani, and many others into authoritarian conspiracy theorists?

In the wake of Durham’s first and perhaps only indictment, we can safely rule out the first two explanations.

Durham’s indictment does not even allege that the FBI committed any wrongdoing. Instead, it charges that the FBI was lied to — by Michael Sussmann, a lawyer who passed on leads about Trump’s ties to Russia that the bureau was unable to verify. Durham’s indictment claims Sussmann committed perjury by denying he was working for the Clinton campaign at the time he brought his information about Trump to the FBI in 2016.

Read more: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/09/durham-indictment-of-trumps-russia-enemies-is-falling-apart.html

[OAITW r.2.0]

1. Yes, lets understand the Alfabank - Trump connection. What

was the communications? The Trump-Putin Hotline?

[DanieRains]

2. I Heard Some Say Durham Was Respectable

Seems so.

No leaks, or other bs.

Nothing there investigation.

[dem4decades]

3. His Number 2 person quit for a reason, Durham may not be as respectable as you think.

[stopdiggin]

7. I think that is coming under serious question -(nt)-

[LetMyPeopleVote]

4. Durham has little to show for his efforts. The results have underwhelmed Trump supporters

Link to tweet

While the Durham indictment details alleged dirty tricks by the Clinton campaign, there's also a big part of the 2016 story that's missing from it.

By the time Sussmann met with the FBI, the bureau was already investigating a Russian hack-and-dump campaign aimed at damaging Clinton. Podesta and the Democratic National Committee were targeted by Russian intelligence agencies and their private emails were released publicly, and a separate Russian bot network fed anti-Clinton propaganda online.

Mueller's report found that the Russian effort was aimed at least in part to help Trump win the election, and that Trump's allies welcomed and even encouraged that help.

Trump himself fed the suspicions. In July 2016, Trump publicly encouraged Russia to target Clinton. "Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing, I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press," Trump said, making reference to thousands of emails that at the time the FBI said had been deleted and not recovered as part of its investigation of Clinton's private email server. The FBI that month had closed the investigation of Clinton and recommended no charges.

Durham also doesn't write into his indictment of Sussmann additional reasons why the FBI had suspicions about Trump and Russia. American intelligence was taking in tips on multiple fronts, and ultimately investigators looked at a handful of Trump advisers, including campaign chairman Paul Manafort, as well as foreign policy contacts George Papadopoulos and Carter Page, who had contacts with Russians.

Previously, Durham spoke to witnesses and gathered information about the federal government's investigations related to both Papadopoulos and Page. A few of the interviews Durham considered holding never materialized this year, according to several sources familiar with Durham's work.

[monkeyman1]

5. " ROFLMFAO " !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[UCmeNdc]

6. K&R

[Jon King]

8. What a huge waste of taxpayers money.

This guy can basically keep this going forever and just keep making money.

[Mr.Bill]

9. Never trust anyone

who appears to be eating his facial hair.

[UTUSN]

10. K&R