The stunning hypocrisy of special counsel John Durham’s inquiry into Trump-Russia probe

In 2019, a few weeks after the release of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 election, The Trump administration flipped the script and began investigating investigators.

Attorney General Bill Barr appointed US Attorney General John Durham to investigate government officials who have considered Donald Trump’s ties to Russia.

The FBI The Trump-Russia investigation, Barr has argued publicly, was born out of the pursuit of flimsy conspiracy theories and reliance on false evidence, and that its investigators were blinded by political bias or acted with overt political motives.

Then Durham and Barr did the same thing.

A detailed new exposé by the New York Times’ Charlie Savage, Adam Goldman, and Katie Benner investigates what happened to the nearly four-year Durham investigation, which was supposed to be over, and it didn’t go well. Anecdote after anecdote portrays Durham and Barr as believers in conspiracy theories without evidence but with clear political motives to support one of Trump’s favorite arguments: they are the victims of an evil plot.

Basically, Durham and Barr want to prove that the Trump-Russia investigation was created in bad faith by “deep state” officials or the Clinton campaign (or both), with the goal of undermining Trump politically. Again and again, Durham tried different versions of this theory, and again and again, he failed to prove his case.

If Barr and Durham start out suspicious, but when they investigate it turns out to be unfounded, then it’s not necessarily scary. But both men continued to say or state publicly that the “‘deep state’/Clinton campaign hit job” theory was true – Barr in public statements where he said it directly and Durham in court filings and test questions that are apparently designed to advance a narrative that cannot actually be proven.

Oddly enough, while examining one of these theories – that Italian officials were involved in launching the Trump-Russia investigation – Durham and Barr were instead presented with evidence linking Trump himself to potential financial crimes. “Mr. Barr and Mr. Durham decided that the tip was too serious and not to be trusted,” the Times reporter wrote. Barr kept this new investigation into Trump in Durham’s hands, and it’s not clear what happened.

The Trump-Russia investigation is certainly not exempt from criticism, and a fair review of whether the investigators​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​v-V But the Durham investigation was not like that. However, it has repeatedly assumed an evil plot against Trump, despite the fact that evidence has failed to establish the plot, while Barr has created a narrative to the conservative media and President Trump himself that Durham is closing in on Trump’s “deep state” enemies. The politician’s investigation, blinkered that he was looking for was inside him.

Lots of Bill Barr and John Durham conspiracy theories

The big theory of the Russia investigation from Trump supporters has always been a “deep state” Democrat witch hunt. This is what Barr and Durham set out to try to prove – and they explored many possibilities.

Perhaps someone is unaware of the FBI’s decision to open an investigation in July 2016. post-election period when the FBI is acting strange. Maybe the CIA cooked up an analysis of Russian interference with the election. Or perhaps Western intelligence services are spreading misinformation. But Durham’s investigation did not lead to charges against officials in the matter.

However, Durham’s accusations against government officials, in 2020, stemmed from a referral made by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz, who discovered that FBI lawyers had altered emails while trying to enter the fourth round of FISA surveillance. on Trump campaign aide Carter Page. The lawyer, Kevin Clinesmith, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 12 months of probation, but the judge in the case concluded that he had no political motive and was instead involved in cutting bureaucratic corners.

In 2021, Durham seems to have given up its “deep state”. His team’s new theory appears to be that the ​Trump/Russia investigators were harassed by a nefarious outside actor – with ties to Hillary Clinton – who deliberately made false or misleading claims to create a bogus investigation into Trump.

So he focused on one episode in which Michael Sussmann, a lawyer for the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee, told the FBI about research by a group of computer scientists into secret online communications between Trump’s servers and Russian banks. The charges against Sussmann are narrow, with Durham saying he lied to FBI contacts about whether he arranged the meeting for his client.

The indictment, it seems, was written to reflect something bigger — that the Clinton campaign deliberately fabricated the Trump-Russia link, and sent it to the FBI and the media. The problem with this theory is that other evidence suggests that the researchers involved strongly believe in the theory. (Sussmann was acquitted of the charges at trial.)

Durham also dug up Igor Danchenko, the lead researcher for the infamous Christopher Steele (and notoriously flawed) “dossier” admits Trump-Russia connection. Durham apparently has try to imply that Democrats intentionally spread false claims in the dossier — like the claim about “pee tapes.”

But what could prove to be less impressive – a Democratic PR executive, who has previously been involved in several Clinton campaigns but never at a high level, has claimed to know about some Trump campaign personnel rumors that he had read in the newspaper. (Danchenko was charged with lying to the FBI but acquitted at trial.)

Now, a new Times report points to another episode in which Durham used questionable methods to try to prove Democratic wrongdoing. The background is that the CIA has obtained several Russian intelligence memos that allege there was a deliberate plot by Clinton to falsify the investigation into Trump, but the memos are believed to be dubious by internal analysts.

However, Durham tried to prove its authenticity, in part by trying to secretly obtain emails from an executive at the Open Society Foundation George Soros (because the memo made several allegations about this executive). But the judge denied Durham’s request to obtain the private citizen’s email without notice.

The Times reporter pointed out that this is very similar to what the FBI did with the accusations in the dubious Steele dossier – except now, it’s okay because Barr’s people did it.

It is possible that Durham discovered some unpleasant things that will be revealed in the final report. But so far, his investigation seems like a political mess, bouncing from one conspiracy theory and weak case to the next.

Everything Barr thought was true about the Trump-Russia investigation has become true about the investigation he ordered.