That faint whimper you may hear is the end of the much overhyped Durham Investigation that was supposed to reveal how Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and the Deep State and the Democrats all colluded to pick on poor Donald Trump and level false charges against him about his collusion with Russia.
A little over a month ago we learned that Durham’s grand jury’s time was up, and he wasn’t calling another one.
As of November 2021 Durham had issued single-count indictments against two Americans for making a false statement, and a five-count false statement indictment against a Russian national. One of the Americans was acquitted at trial; the other, an FBI lawyer, entered into a plea agreement with no jail time for doctoring an email used in preparation for a wiretap renewal application.
The Russian national, Igor Danchenko, goes on trial next month. The Right is feverishly looking forward to the Danchenko testimony that will discredit the evil Steele Dossier. The problem, of course, is that (one) the Steele Dossier has already been pretty much discredited; (two) the Steele Dossier wasn’t nearly as big a part of the evidence against Trump that the Right claims it to be. In fact, when the FBI began its investigation it didn’t yet know the dossier existed.
Well, folks, today Igor Danchenko was acquitted of all charges. And that’s the end of the Durham investigation.
Durham tried to prove that Danchenko had lied about the dossier, and those lies led to an FBI wiretap of a Trump adviser. But the jury decided otherwise.
Mr. Trump and his supporters have falsely sought to conflate the dossier with the official investigation into Mr. Trump’s ties to Russia, but the F.B.I. did not open the inquiry based on the dossier and the final report by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, did not cite anything in it as evidence. …
,,, Mr. Steele hired Mr. Danchenko to canvass contacts in Russia and Europe about Mr. Trump’s business dealings in Russia.
Mr. Danchenko conveyed rumors that Mr. Trump’s campaign was colluding with Russia, and that Russia had a blackmail tape of Mr. Trump with prostitutes in a hotel room in Moscow. But during an interview with the F.B.I., Mr. Danchenko said that he had first seen the dossier when BuzzFeed published it and that Mr. Steele had exaggerated his statements, portraying uncorroborated gossip as fact.
So that’s that.
File it with Trump's 2016 "Election Fraud" Commission. Which disbanded without ever filing a report on election fraud.
With Durham, the game was the same – validate the preconception that there was some fraud or deception to validate the expectation that there was nothing to the Russia accusations. In fact, Trump was supported by a social media blitz financed by the Kremlin. Trump was (and is) Putin's favorite US president.
I think that this investigation was mostly an information collection operation by the GOP plumbers… and/or, the TFG org trying to sniff out money in blackmail and secrets.
The bonus was the red meat for the baby sharks.
"KILL, FANG!
KILL!!!!!"
Whoops!
So tRUMP's and Barr's attack-dog didn't chew on anyone's femur.
Instead, it looked like he licked the hand of the victim, when he could also have gnawed on that for a while.
But it's ok. If the RepubliKKKLANS get control of the House, they'll re-peruse Durham's info, as part of impeachment efforts aimed at Biden – and others.
Oy.
The pea tape? I still believe!
Very little of the Steele Dossier has been shown to be true; none of it has been shown to be false. The Steele Dossier was NEVER asserted by its author to be factual. It was a compilation of rumors and hearsay.
You must keep in mind 'The Rules'…
Democrats are guilty upon the assertion of impropriety.
Republicans are innocent unto all Court Appeals of their convictions have been exhausted and then it is still 'doubtful'.
Whenever I think things are bad here, I look at the UK, where they've gone from a buffoon (Boris Johnson) to a cruel joke (Liz Truss). She's been in office since Labor Day, and I read she enjoys a 9% approval rating. The tabloids are running a contest about whether she or a head of lettuce will wilt first (lettuce has a 10 day shelf life). You can watch, in real time on Lettuce Cam.
Yes, different reality is the theme of the day. Republican just have different ways. First, they find a conclusion they like, then they hold hearings to find the evidence for the outrageous conclusions they came to, without any facts at all. Could they have got to that conclusion by divine insight? Maybe in their delusional mind.
Jennifer Rubin talks today about the separate political universes they occupy in the WP. To the question of what their political solution to all the problems is… she wrote:
I am quickly coming to the conclusion that different thinking patterns in reasoning and problem identification have a given political valance. Republicans have given up on coherence since the rise of Sarah Palin. Benghazi Brain Dysfunction is the new GOP normal.
I suspect too there is a pee tape, but if it shows up, I'll bet republicans will cry fake. No amount of documentation or testimony will convince them otherwise. Evidence only counts if it fits for conclusions republicans already hold as true.
Conservatives can't handle complexity, and so they concoct beliefs that "explain" reality rather than deal with real-world evidence and ambiguity, and think they can deal with the real world by making the data fit these beliefs – conclusions come first, not at the end. It's very medieval instead of scientific.
Part of this disconnect with reality is their faith in authority, that people who've "succeeded" and have real-world power have figured things out, and all they need to do is fall in line, and make everyone around them do the same. It’s why conformity is very important, the safety of the herd.
These days baffle me that "conservatism" is popular; I grew up in a tremendously conservative household/community and everyone I knew was desperately trying to figure out how to shed this state of mind or get the F out physically. Mostly, I think that that the people around me were trying to get out from under the opinions of the pearl-clutchers. The social regulation that goes along with the conservative mind uses every manipulation and con to keep the important folks on top and perpetuate disfunctional modes of living. The churchey dudes and their sourpuss wives use "tradition" (read: panicking over the gays) and "it says in the holy bible that…" to hammer and nit pick at perceived faults of someone as a total power move. Sh*t, why would anyone choose to want to give themselves ulcers to run with the conservative crowd?
Oh drat, some of us got stuck and have to live day-to-day with a sort of conservo-camouflage so that the angry conservatives don't single you out like a chicken with a spot and turn their sh*t nozzle on you.
Worth-reading article about a worthless investigation
https://www.salon.com/2022/10/19/legal-experts-mock-failed-durham-probe-no-other-prosecutor-has-ever-posted-such-a-dismal-record/
It should be compared to the Muller investigation results. (From ABC)
"Over the course of his nearly two-year-long probe, special counsel Robert Mueller and his team of prosecutors have now indicted 34 individuals and three Russian businesses on charges ranging from computer hacking to conspiracy and financial crimes.
Those indictments have led to seven guilty pleas and five people sentenced to prison."
The Muller Investigation collected 28.6 million in fines, forfeitures, and penalties.
No, you aren't reading those facts and figures side-by-side but you should.