Durham's report found DOJ, FBI 'failed to uphold' mission of 'strict fidelity to the law' in Trump-Russia probe

[Berzerker]

https://youtu.be/54QwxuU2GFQ

Gym Jordan is always entertaining

[-Jrabbit]

Durham testified today, C-SPAN is repeating it tonight twice

Hoping you watched the whole thing, not just the Jim Jordan soundbites for the base...

John Durham, appointed as special counsel by Trump attorney general William Barr on October 19, 2020, to investigate the behavior of federal investigators who examined the ties between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russian operatives, testified for over six hours today before the House Judiciary Committee. While Trump and his loyalists repeatedly predicted Durham would find damning evidence against the investigators, in fact his 306-page report, released on May 15 after a four-year, $6.5 million investigation, simply said the FBI should have launched a preliminary investigation rather than a full investigation (a 2019 report by the Justice Department’s inspector general concluded the opposite).

There was little new information presented in the hearing, although Durham did answer a question from Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) about the report that when Durham and Barr had asked Italian officials for evidence in favor of Trump, they had instead passed on information that implicated Trump in financial crimes. Durham responded, “The question’s outside the scope of what I think I’m authorized to talk about—it’s not part of the report,” but added: “I can tell you this. That investigative steps were taken, grand jury subpoenas were issued and it came to nothing.”

The hearing served mostly to keep the Russia investigation in front of the public, which appears to be important to the former president and his allies as they continue to attack the FBI and the Justice Department. But Democrats on the committee pressed Durham on the facts of the Russia investigation itself, and he, seemingly somewhat reluctantly, agreed under oath in response to questions by Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA) that the facts of the Mueller report and the Senate Intelligence Committee report were correct: Russia interfered in the 2016 election for the benefit of Trump, Trump’s campaign welcomed the help and shared information and secret meetings with Russian operatives, and the FBI was justified in investigating that interference.

https://www.facebook.com/heathercoxrichardson

[Berzerker]

I watched some and I got it recorded but it'll take a while to digest. Durham is also testifying in closed committee. Did your historian write that too?

The IG report regarding the origin of Crossfire Hurricane was first and more limited in scope, Durham did more digging and said the criteria for a full investigation much less a fisa warrant was not met (the IG agreed on that last point). And he didn't even interview the key people involved, especially Prof Misfud, the guy who told Papadopoulos Russia had dirt on Hillary. Durham tried to find him but he didn't want to be found or he's dead. Durham didn't interview hardly anyone of import, most of the main players declined and he didn't issue subpoenas to them. Wonderful. The media would not ignore this non-compliance with an investigation if Trump's people were in hiding.

Durham wasn't corroborating Mueller's report, he was looking at Russiagate. He didn't look at Russia's alleged involvement, just how our security state misbehaved. Schiff is asking him if he agrees with an investigation he didn't scrutinize. Now one of the many ironies of Russiagate is the fact Hillary's campaign was paying a guy (Igor Danchenko) with connections to Russian intel, the FBI even investigated him and concluded he was a Russian asset. After Hillary stopped paying him the FBI started paying him wtf. Maybe they were hoping to turn him but aint it amusing how the Dems paid a Russian asset to smear Trump while complaining about Russian interference? Ukraine was interfering too and Trump wanted that investigated. Maybe this historian hasn't found out yet, but Obama and the top people in his security state administration knew in late July (if not sooner) the Clinton campaign was framing Trump as a traitor so they helped. Yeah, thats what they did and they knew it was a scam.

As for the evidence of Trump-Putin collusion, here's what I've seen: Trump told Russia our journalists would really appreciate it if you found the missing emails destroyed by the Clinton campaign. Soon afterward someone allegedly tried to hack into her campaign computers. The Dems say that was Marcia but their credibility evaporated long ago. Trump's people met with Russians in the Tower meeting believing they were getting dirt on Hillary, instead the Russian(s) talked about abortion (and sanctions?) so Trump's team ended the meeting. Manafort shared polling data with someone with Russian (and Ukrainian) connections but Mueller didn't tie it to anything beyond Manafort's explanation of self promoting to attract oligarchs. Influence peddling, maybe get a job on the board of Burisma.

The Tower meeting is of interest. The Russian woman who arrived was an associate of Glenn Simpson of Fusion GPS, they had dinner around the time of the meeting. The Trump team got baited into a trap by the cheese of dirt on Hillary, instead the Tower meeting was used to frame Trump and Putin of collusion. Well, Trump's people did show up expecting dirt so they wanted to 'collude' enough to expose it. I dont think that rises to the same level as paying a foreign actor to frame Trump with the FBI's help.

Aaron Mate had an interesting point, Durham didn't look into the alleged hack of Dem emails but that was the event that triggered all this. Durham says the Dems were behind Russiagate but didn't investigate their role in the alleged hacking. The CEO of Crowdstrike testified under oath they didn't have solid evidence Russia hacked the emails. Lolwut? Assange said it wasn't Russia. Bill Binney said it wasn't a hack but had to be a DL at the site. But Comey's FBI didn't investigate, they let Crowdstrike do that. How convenient.

[-Jrabbit]

Just trying to expose you to some neutral sources of actual facts in proper context, like Dr. Richardson. I'm not surprised to see your reaction is to suggest that she just "hasn't found out yet." Word for word, that's what a conspiracy theorist would say.

Prof. Heather Cox Richardson publishes a new "Letters from an American" 6 days a week. You could do worse than to read her daily, if only for perspective. I read it on FB, but you can subscribe via her substack as well: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/

[Berzerker]

I'm addressing her mistakes and omissions and 'hasn't found out yet' mocks her title of nobility

[-Jrabbit]

I will continue my best efforts to live in a factual, evidence-based universe. Clearly, you have no interest in that.

[Berzerker]

https://youtu.be/HhSDyBh6_vg

JD on Durham's testimony

[EPW]

Woooh that was a close one. Thanks JD

[PLATO]

Woooh that was a close one. Thanks JD

Griffin speaks.

[Berzerker]

Aint it amazing how the Dems have refrained from discussing Misfud or accusing him of Marcia? I'd bet he was working for the Dems, he found a low level volunteer and whispered about Marcia and George dutifully relayed the message up the chain. They were primed for the Tower meeting, all it took was having a Russian (Hillary was paying multiple Russians to interfere in our election) woman show up under the guise of supplying Russian dirt. That was the Clinton campaign, not Putin. Durham doesn't appear to have delved into certain areas, some analysts have noticed he stayed away from Crowdstrike and the emails.

John Brennan briefed Obama, Biden, Comey and the top brass that Hillary was framing Trump as a traitor in late July '16 and they proceeded to use her 'dossier' to spy on Trump before the election while lying to us. They knew she was framing Trump and they conspired to help, Obama's more corrupt than Nixon.