Durham Investigation: Infuriatingly Inadequate
Last week, we scratched our heads along with legal analyst Margot Cleveland over why Special Counsel John Durham would cling to the narrative that the FBI was duped by liars such as Michael Sussmann and Igor Danchenko, when doing so was hurting his own prosecution. The FBI gave every indication of knowing what “dossier” source Danchenko and their DNC attorney friend Sussmann were up to and played along with their mutually beneficial lies. They even put Danchenko on the payroll as a confidential human source after it was known the “dossier” was only unverified rubbish funded by Hillary’s campaign.
In case you didn’t see Cleveland’s piece, here it is.
Durham’s “walking indictments” might tell the tale to those of us who care to read between the lines, and his final report might be scathing, but essentially no one in our corrupt intel bureaucracy is being held accountable. After all this time, and as the Danchenko trial looms in just a few more weeks, we can only wonder: What is it going to take?
‘Thanks For Nothing, John Durham’
From the start, we gave Durham the benefit of the doubt, especially when the Sussmann indictment laid out the connection to Hillary For America. At last, an “official” connection had been made. But this nipping around the edges isn’t nearly enough to satisfy those of us fed up with the double standard of “justice” in Washington D.C.
Count Pete McArdle, writng in American Thinker, as one of the deeply unsatisfied. Let’s take a look at what perhaps is the most pessimistic commentary ever about Durham’s effort, or lack of effort. It’s called, appropriately, “Thanks For Nothing, John Durham.”
McArdle never did think Durham’s investigation would amount to anything. “As Durham’s investigative ‘work’ finally wraps up,” he writes, “it’s embarrassingly obvious he’s just another swamp creature with a nice suit, a bad goatee, and no spine.”
In what was just about the worst insult anyone could give, he calls Durham “the Mitt Romney of special investigators: a Democrat wolf in RINO clothing.”
Durham has been “about as aggressive as a Prince Edward Island oyster in a foul mood,” he says.
If he’s been tireless, it’s been strictly in service to his Deep State masters. And when all the major players involved in the attempted coups against President Trump walk with their pensions, licenses and CNN jobs firmly in hand — and they will — you can throw ‘fair’ right out the window.
Clinesmith Got a Slap on the Wrist — And Can Still Practice Law
Exhibit A: Kevin Clinesmith, who did something that in a real justice system (one without quotation marks around the word “justice”) would be a very, very bad thing. I would think that falsifying evidence against an innocent person would be about the most serious thing anyone in law enforcement could do. But apparently now, it’s not that big a deal — at least if it’s part of the effort to railroad Trump and/or his associates — and can be pleaded down to a probation-only slap on the wrist. And Clinesmith even got his law license back, after lying to a federal court.
Laughably Absurd Dismissal of Carter Page Lawsuit
Recall that about a month ago, a judge tossed out Carter Page’s $75 million lawsuit. In some of the most outrageous hair-splitting ever seen, U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich, a Trump appointee, would not allow Page to sue anyone he couldn’t prove actually committed the electronic surveillance. Sure, she said, they might have indirectly helped facilitate the setting up of the surveillance with their false claim to the FISA Court that he was a Russian agent, but Page can’t prove they personally set up the recording devices themselves, or gathered or listened to the falsely obtained communications.
Apparently, their involvement was at the application stage, not the surveillance stage. In the judge’s words:
This plain-text understanding — that Congress allowed suit against only those who conducted unauthorized surveillance, and not those who at the application stage misled the [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court] to approve that surveillance — may seem odd. But it is not so ‘absurd when considered in the particularly statutory context,’ as the Court must.
The Untouchable Swamp Monsters Are Laughing Out Loud
But it is absurd, laughably so. But the ones laughing are the swamp monsters who targeted Page and are now off the hook. Because of this, yes, absurd interpretation of the law, James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, Kevin Clinesmith and others involved are untouchable, at least by Page, because he can’t prove they were the ones to do the actual eavesdropping or the physical drafting of the applications.
More hairsplitting from Judge Friedrich:
Some of the defendants…allegedly approved, encouraged, and facilitated Page’s investigation and the warrant applications. Absent from the complaint is any claim that these four defendants participated in drafting or substantially reviewing the faulty applications themselves, let alone that they performed the FISA surveillance and acquired Page’s communications.
But in breaking news, Carter Page appeared with Maria Bartiromo on Sunday Morning Futures to discuss a new motion he’s just filed, “to alter or amend the judgment” to dismiss his case. This filing incorporates what we’ve learned about the FBI actually paying Igor Danchenko when they knew he’d given them fake information. Page thinks this new revelation of fraud provides a solid basis for reopening his case and getting to the truth.
Page was never charged with any wrongdoing but was falsely accused of being a Russian agent and his life was completely upended. He was spied on for years. He had to hide out to protect himself from death threats. No telling what his legal fees were. In fact, it seems as though all the lawfare of the past several years, aside from being designed to take down Trump, has been largely a make-work plan for lawyers. This going-through-the-motions (pun intended) continues seemingly forever and nothing is accomplished, much like digging holes and filling them up again. What do big-deal D.C. attorneys get now, about $500 an hour?
Anyway, I wonder if the obstacle Page’s lawsuit faces is one of the things that set McArdle off. He runs through the names of all the usual suspects — the ones Page was suing, along with others such as current FBI Director Christopher Wray — noting they’re “sitting down to a nice dinner right about now, not a care in the world. Even though they tried mightily to take down a sitting, duly-elected President.” They’ve got lucrative media contracts, speaking gigs, and hefty bank accounts.
The RINOs don’t escape McArdle’s wrath, either. “They’re good at writing threatening letters demanding information they know they’ll never get, and little else.”
Durham Dove Into the Swamp — But He Didn’t Drain It
“It appears that all the injustices perpetrated against President Trump for nigh unto seven years now will be swept under the rug,” he writes. “No one will be punished, there will be no justice, and the swamp creatures will laugh long and hard at the special counsel’s long, drawn out and thoroughly useless ‘investigation.’”
I’ve said it before: the one way we’re going to set our “justice” system right is by electing people who will go in there like Jesus with the moneychangers. Endless investigations and lawsuits might give us a closer look at the Swamp, but they won’t help us drain it.
Mike Huckabee is the former governor of Arkansas and longtime conservative commentator on issues in culture and current events. A New York Times best-selling author, he hosts the weekly talk show Huckabee on TBN.
Originally published at MikeHuckabee.com. Reprinted with permission.
