The Durham Disaster (edited)

George Rebane

Igor Danchenko walked in a jury opinion that made special prosecutor John Durham’s ‘strike two’ as he concludes his three-year investigation into the Russia collusion hoax.  Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussman was Durham’s first failure at the bar of justice.  The evidence against both sleazebags was overwhelming to most who understood the magnitude of the hoax from its start, now more than six years ago.

But for reasons that still boggle my mind, our legal system is now so convoluted and corrupt that main street reason and logic cannot even comprehend its processes and products.  The convoluted part has always been there since biblical times for all legal systems - i.e. the lawyers' full employment act.  It’s today’s corruption add-on that is most disturbing.

Durham’s last chance at bat is his vaunted report that is forthcoming.  Of course, there’s no guarantee that Biden’s law firm, aka the DoJ, will ever let it see the light of day.  In that event, I suppose that is why God invented leakers.  The much-awaited report is supposed to be a summa indictment of the now thoroughly corrupt FBI.  Can you imagine that they offered ex-Brit spy Christopher Steele one million dollars if he could come up with what would pass for evidence in corroborating the fictions Danchenko generated and passed off as another Clinton hireling involved in what was mischaracterized as opposition research.  When you weave the contents of the infamous ‘Steele dossier’ out of whole cloth, that is at best creative writing and not research. (more here) 

And, of course, Hillary continues on her perch on top of Mt Olympus, totally shielded by the lamestream and the federal justice system from any splatter as all this hits the fan.  No one knows when Durham will wrap up his disastrous exercise to count coup on any part of the neo-Marxist machine that is powering the country’s turn away from constitutional republicanism.  No one should bet a dime against the FBI coming out of this as a rehabilitated institution - aka smelling like a rose.  Meanwhile, the sheeple remain quietly bedded down, and the Republicans are doing their best cricket imitations.

[correction]  An astute reader caught my error in ascribing Danchenko, instead of Steele, as the intended recipient of FBI's desperate $1M payoff.  Many thanks.

Comments

[Gregory]

The jury non-verdict will give the willfully blind (like Punchy) cover, but an appropriate report given with the opposition in control of the Senate and the House can be expected to open things up a bit.

[fish]

Anybody want to offer odds on 0 for 3?

[Bill Tozer]

‘Moral of the Durham trials: Jurors won't convict sources if the FBI wanted their bait’

https://justthenews.com/accountability/russia-and-ukraine-scandals/moral-durham-trials-jurors-wont-convict-sources-if-fbi

[Bill Tozer]

Durham trails.

I never expected one person to go to jail, especially the higher up untouchables and Hillary. Scott (and probably other totally disagree with me) but I am Durban did want he was tasked by Bill Barr to do: find the origins of Russiagate.
————————-
Repost from Sandbox:

‘Kudos to John Durham for exposing the truth of ‘Russiagate’

“That’s why Durham deserves our praise. Under the circumstances, he has a motive to soft-pedal the FBI’s misconduct, to try to keep the jury focused on the defendant who is actually charged in the case.

Instead, Durham has done exactly the opposite. He has been transparent about the FBI’s malfeasance. It was Durham who proved that the FBI offered Steele a cool million bucks if he could prove his claims against Trump, and that neither Steele nor Danchenko could do so. It was Durham who proved that the FBI then swore four times that the unverified dossier information was verified. It was Durham who proved that even after finally interviewing Danchenko after the first two sworn applications, and hearing from him that the dossier was nonsense, the FBI continued relying on the anti-Trump dossier — willfully concealing Danchenko’s disavowal of it from the Justice Department and the court.

It was also Durham who proved that, even after the dossier debacle, the FBI signed Danchenko as a paid informant, lavishly paying him $200,000 over three years — with one agent unsuccessfully trying to get approval to pay him another $346,000 before the gravy train was finally derailed. Durham also proved that the agent who signed Danchenko as an informant falsely claimed to the bureau unit that monitors informants that there was no derogatory information about him. That is, the agent failed to check the bureau’s own records showing that the FBI had suspected Danchenko as a Russian asset. And that was only the most egregious of the rudimentary due-diligence failures to probe his background, motivations, and foreign government interactions.

https://nypost.com/2022/10/17/kudos-to-john-durham-for-exposing-the-truth-of-russiagate/

[Scott O]

BT - "Durban did want he was tasked by Bill Barr to do: find the origins of Russiagate."
But we already pretty well knew that. Who else would (and had the connections and ability) would cook up something that wack?
I'm not against Durham - hell, I feel sorry for the guy.
Look - I'm going to stick my neck out a bit and play devil's advocate as well.
First of all, Durham has now proved that no one lied about the govt's investigation. They were acquitted. How can they try anyone from the FBI?
"Hey, they told us the truth, we had to act on the info we had."
If you are holding out hope for an R led hearing into the whole thing - good luck.
The Dems on the committee will squabble and stall and turn the whole thing into a circus. They'll call witnesses that have nothing to do with the investigation just to talk about how afraid they are Trump is going to destroy our country. Key witnesses will simply refuse to appear. "Your precious Bannon didn't show! So there!" They will be held in GOOD contempt, like Holder, for refusing to take part in an obvious attempt by the Rs to distract from the serious issues facing our county!
Bannon was held in BAD contempt for refusing to help protect our DEMOCRACY from destruction!
It isn't a matter of no one going to the slammer - it's a matter of when all is said and done, the same swamp will be safely in place knowing they can now withstand any attempt to dislodge them. And we'll still have a populace filled with "middle of the road" types who don't really know anything about what has happened and won't care.
Hate to be a gloomy Gus, but I try to stay pragmatic about life. Other countries are corrupt and most folks there get along OK. We had a great thing going here for a couple hundred years, but human nature is like the weeds that grow through thick concrete. They always seem to find the cracks and end up taking over.

[Bill Tozer]

Scott O @ 4:57 pm

Can’t argue with that. Things will keep on going as they are. The FBI lawyer who lied (plead guilty) got no time, got to keep his job, and the DC Bar even reinstated his law license. That speaks volumes.

At least Durham smoked the FBI out to a greater degree than before. Nothing is going to happen to Biden’s SS. Nothing is going to happen to Biden’s Minister of Justice Garland. I am just grateful that Merrick Garland is not on the SCOTUS. I am also glad I am on the side of law and order, even if my government refuses to. The more I think about it, it is Biden & Co that resemble the Hitler and the Nazis, not the right. They are the real threat to our democracy.

Fight on. It is a righteous fight.

[Scott O]

"and the DC Bar even reinstated his law license."
He was re-instated before he was even off of probation, which according to lawyers familiar with that sort of thing is completely unheard of.
Got to get him back in the saddle and keep him well supplied with money to keep his mouth shut. What a good little sleaze bag.

"Fight on. It is a righteous fight."
Yeah, the most effective ones have the goon squad show up at their house and the justice dept makes sure they empty their bank account fighting off bogus charges. Sorry - I think we're past the tipping point and they're using modern tech and "1984" as a blueprint.

[Bill Tozer]

Scott 0 - 6:52 pm

And to think that abortion peaceful protestor is facing 11 years in the Big House. 11 years. Horrifying times. We are being terrorized.

[Scott O]

BT 7:30 - And remember what Waters told people to do:
"If you see anybody from that (Trump) Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them, and you tell them they're not welcome anymore, anywhere."
That is common assault. That is violence.
We have an openly corrupt system of justice. At least during Jim Crow they tried to hide it or make excuses. Now they are proud of it.
It is corrosive to no end. It erodes the public's trust and faith in the govt and engenders lawlessness in daily life.

[Paul Emery]

Yep another dud from Trump, the biggest political loser in modern history

Associated Press
Trump claim of ‘Crime of Century’ fizzles in 3-year probe

https://news.yahoo.com/trump-claim-crime-century-fizzles-204727920.html

[Scott O]

My 4:57 - "And we'll still have a populace filled with "middle of the road" types who don't really know anything about what has happened and won't care."

Less than 24hrs later -
Paul Emery: "Yep another dud from Trump..."

[George Boardman]

Appointing Durham was an obvious ploy by William Barr to undermine The Donald. After all, how can you trust an AG who told Trump to his face that claims of voter fraud were BS?

You have to wonder about Durham's credentials. His own witnesses undermined his case. I thought lawyers were supposed to know the answer before they asked the question.

After three years and $4 million, Durham could only come up with two guys who allegedly lied to the FBI. And I thought Hamilton Burger was a loser.

[Gregory]

As long as juries can be found on the Eastern seaboard that will not bite the hands that feed them, there will be no guilty verdicts for such Federal malfeasance.

But of course, you know that.

Not guilty does not mean innocent.

[Scott O]

Boardman - "Durham could only come up with two guys who allegedly lied to the FBI."

Not allegedly - they did. But the first jury had decided before the trial that they needed to vote against Trump and the second jury bought the line about how it was OK to lie if the Fibbies wanted them to.
As Gregory pointed out, if these trials were in the heartland or the south, Durham could have easily gotten his guilty verdicts.

[Scott O]

Oh, and BTW Boardman, thanks for reinforcing my 4:57.

[Bill Tozer]

Kinda related to topic

‘Durham reveals Mueller was investigating Trump dossier despite claims it was outside his purview’

“The dossier’s baseless claims about a well-developed collusion conspiracy between former President Donald Trump and the Russians were used in the FISA applications and renewals targeting Trump campaign associate Carter Page, and Mueller refused to say when he became aware of that.

Steele is mentioned by name just 14 times in Mueller’s report, and it repeatedly referred to the allegations in the dossier as “unverified.”

When asked how the Mueller team came to the conclusion the allegations were unverified and how long it took them to reach it, Mueller said, “I’m not going to speak to that.””

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/justice/durham-mueller-investigating-trump-dossier-despite-purview-claims

I remember folks buying Mueller candles for their shrines and Mueller Christmas Tree ornaments in eager anticipation of the gift that Mueller was going to bring the Boardmans and the puppet Cheryls and Punchys of the world. Instead the Easter Bunny brought them some rotten eggs.

Is it just me or have others notice that Bannon seemed unfazed by his sentence which he will not begin to serve if and only after until after ALL appeals have been exhausted. He seems like he is in the driver’s seat for so odd reason. If served concurrently, the two cases will mean two months in the pokey. We don’t know if the sentences are to be concurrent or consecutive, the judge did not say.

The judge did tip his/her hand by delaying jail time until ALL appeals (district court, Court of Appeals, and the US Supreme Court) are exhausted. The judge also tipped his hand by throwing it out there that the J-6 Congressional Committee when straight to the DOJ instead of the Judiciary Branch first. Separation of powers, executive privilege and all those constitutional questions. Judge smelled this ending up at SCOTUS, so Bannon could have been taking straight to the clink, but will not serve a day for some time hench, if any.
Bannon can afford the $250,000 fine, but probably won’t get the fine reduced to $6,800 because the fine will be a joke and have no teeth or stop others, IMHO.

Opps, I am way off topic. No apologies.