Still in the game: Will Durham's report throw a slow curveball at key political players? | TheHill
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Texas Rangers infielder Brock Holt went to the mound this week and threw an eephus — a high-arching, off-speed pitch — in a game against the Oakland Athletics. It is believed to be the slowest pitch recorded in MLB history, and A's batter Josh Harrison stood in disbelief as the 31 mph pitch was called a strike. Harrison just laughed in amazement.
Pirates outfielder Maurice Van Robays coined the term in the 1946 All-Star Game, explaining, "Eephus ain't nothing, and that's a nothing pitch." But as Holt demonstrated, sometimes a "nothing" slow pitch can amount to a great deal.
That is equally true about the occasional criminal eephus that takes everyone by surprise. For example, U.S. Attorney John Durham ’s investigation has been slow in coming, but on Friday, a report surfaced that he is pitching evidence to a grand jury in an investigation started back in May 2019. The Durham investigation is now longer in duration than former special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, and many people long forgot that Durham — made a special counsel at the end of the Trump administration — was even still in the game.
The report in The Wall Street Journal said Durham is presenting evidence against FBI agents and possibly others in the use of false information or tips at the start of the Russia investigation in 2016. Those "others" could include a virtual who's who of Washington politics, and even if they are not indicted, Durham could implicate some of the most powerful figures in politics in his final report, expected in the coming months.
Even for those of us who followed and wrote on the Russia investigation for five years, much has been revealed in the last year. It was disclosed in October, for instance, that President Obama was briefed by his CIA director, John Brennan , on July 28, 2016, on intelligence suggesting that Hillary Clinton planned to tie then-candidate Donald Trump to Russia as “a means of distracting the public from her use of a private email server.” The date was significant because the Russia investigation was initiated July 31, 2016 , just three days later.
Throughout the campaign, the Clinton campaign denied any involvement in the creation of the so-called Steele dossier’s allegations of Trump-Russia connections. However, weeks after the election, journalists discovered that the Clinton campaign hid payments for the dossier made to a research firm, Fusion GPS, as “legal fees” among the $5.6 million paid to the campaign’s law firm. New York Times reporter Ken Vogel said at the time that Clinton lawyer Marc Elias, with the law firm of Perkins Coie, denied involvement in the anti-Trump dossier. When Vogel tried to report the story, he said, Elias “ pushed back vigorously, saying ‘You (or your sources) are wrong .’” Times reporter Maggie Haberman declared, “ Folks involved in funding this lied about it, and with sanctimony, for a year .”
It was not just reporters who asked the Clinton campaign about its role in the Steele dossier. John Podesta, Clinton's campaign chairman, was questioned by Congress and denied categorically any contractual agreement with Fusion GPS. Sitting beside him was Elias, who reportedly said nothing to correct the misleading information given to Congress.
It was later revealed that American intelligence viewed Steele as unreliable and believed his dossier was used by Russian intelligence to plant disinformation. Later reports show that Steele shopped the information to any reporters who would listen before the election and that there was an effort to get the information to trusted figures in the Justice Department.
This cross-pollination between the campaign and the Justice Department was evident in the strange role of Bruce Ohr, a senior Justice official who was later demoted for concealing his meetings with people pushing the Steele dossier; his wife, Nellie Ohr, worked for Fusion GPS as a researcher on Trump's purported connections to Russia. Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz subsequently found that Bruce Ohr acted improperly and committed "consequential errors in judgment."
Others are reported in some media accounts to be in Durham's crosshairs, including an analyst at the liberal Brookings Institution, Igor Danchenko, who was a source for part of the dossier and the subject of a Durham subpoena. Danchenko has been linked to a source viewed by American intelligence as a conduit for Russian disinformation and reportedly was investigated as a possible national security threat, according to at least one news report.
Durham also is reportedly looking into information concerning Alfa Bank, a privately owned commercial bank in Russia. That information led to possible access to the Trump campaign server. The Alfa Bank controversy is likely to make a number of powerful people particularly uneasy. Clinton campaign-linked figures such as Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson allegedly pushed the debunked claim that the Trump campaign had a server linked directly to the bank, which in turn was linked to Vladimir Putin and his cronies. The Alfa Bank conspiracy reportedly was pitched to the Justice Department, including in contacts with Bruce Ohr.
For many individuals, the statute of limitations may have passed on any alleged crimes. But the truth brought to light in any final report could result a public indictment of sorts.
Attorney General Merrick Garland may face some pressure to refuse to reauthorize a continuation of the Durham investigation, but he is likely to continue that support. After all, the Mueller investigation and various damaging investigations targeting Trump officials were approved and protected by his predecessor, William Barr .
The final fight may be over the report itself. Many in Congress and the media may not want it to see the light of day since it is likely to be an indictment not just of the FBI but of the establishment and an enabling media. Yet these same figures demanded "full transparency" over the Mueller report, including secret grand jury material barred from release under federal law. Even in a city that lives on political spin, reversing that narrative to demand secrecy or major redactions may be difficult to achieve in front of an increasingly distrustful public.
Thus, John Durham may be the slowest pitcher of all major league federal prosecutors — but a wide array of powerful people are afraid they may be called out at the plate by what he is about to let fly.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University.
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Watch for it. It's coming....
pffft, that old POS will be pushing up daisies before he ever participates in another lengthy federal trial.
Ya! We're still waiting on all those indictments against Hillary and President Barack Obama's entire administration!
Oh no, not an avatar change ...
Jonathan Turley's fall from being a reasonable if terminally boring "legal expert" to being a shill for right wing fantasies has been breathtaking over the past few years.
No one will be indicted for anything, least of all for unfairly targeting Donald Trump's campaign for investigation in 2016.
Oh yes they will, wishing won't make this scandal go away..
What scandal? The FBI has to treat all leads and reports of irregularities equally.
They have to make a decision based on evidence available at the time.
To hold them to a Monday morning Quarterback's standard many years later
is the ultimate damned if you do, damned if you don't scenario.
Durham is basically trying to get the Grand Jury to bring criminal charges against FBI agents for doing their jobs.
Does this remind you of the Grand Jury that would not indict Andrew McCabe?
It should and the results should be the same, NO witch hunts.
When they know those leads and reports are full of shit they are supposed to drop them. Not use them to launch a fishing expedition against a political opponent.
The evidence at the time was the Steele dossier was full of shit; and they knew it.
It is called being held responsible for potential crimes they committed. That whole equal under the law thing; which Democrats oppose now in our new two tier justice system.
Fuck them all. They knew what they were doing when they were doing it. Funny how they sat on the Hunter Biden hard drives- which had far more incriminating evidence.
For breaking the damn law! Get that through your thick TDS driven heads!
Where the hell is McGabe now? No longer working in government; and no chance of ever getting a job in it again. CNN hired his TDS driven ass. They deserve each other.
The whole damn Mueller investigation was a fucking witch hunt; but TDS sufferers had no damn problem with it! Screw them all. If they are innocent they will be found so; but many will lose their jobs w/o a golden parachute as it should be!
Oh, and what charges were brought against McGabe? The Grand Jury didn't give a decision. Which is another thing you got wrong.
McGabe did his damn job so well he was fired over it. No charges were filed against him. Again our two tier justice system playing itself out.
I said they failed to indict. What did I get wrong? Who said it's so easy to indict that even a ham sandwich could be indicted?
Rudy G?
Do you have any thing NEWER than a reactionary blog article from 2 years ago?
The matter is now headed to mediation.
Victory for McCabe seems like a forgone conclusion now.
All partisan talking points voted up by the regulars
Congratulations.
Fuck the asshole Garland. He is a leftwing POS. Of course he is negotiating with the leftist tool McGabe.
The asshole deserved to be fired and prosecuted. All you are pointing out is that our two tier justice system is still in full damn affect!
But that is OK with the left; it is what they want for this country.
Ah, none of your regulars coming around? I am sure if you ask nicely they will give you some mercy votes.
Not in DC when it involves Trump.
Stated in your usual eloquence I see.
BTW the asshole, LW POS Garland is the person who is going to keep Trump from being prosecuted, at least for 01/06.
good article by that other worthless POS Jeffrey Toobin.
Read it, it might improve your mood.
Mr. Durham has been examining potential criminal charges against several lower-level Federal Bureau of Investigation employees, and people who aren’t in government,
Big whoop.
another lackluster participant in the trumpster kitchen sink tossing contest...
Trump may demand to be re-instated as president and the clock rewound to 2017.
Seems like progressive liberals are willing to ignore and look the other wag when it comes to this report.
Why is that, when all they could do was squeal about The Great Mueller Report, which turned out to be not so great after all.
Maybe because the truth will hurt the narrative?
When the Mueller Report was based on innuendo, supposition, lies and manufactured info from a foreign national spy hired by the DNC and Clinton campaign, they had to support it. Lies are all the progressives know and adore.
Donald Trump asked the Russians to hack Hillary Clinton (and they tried!) and his son met with a Russian to get dirt on Hillary under the belief he was colluding with the Russian government (he just thought it was legal to do so). Be happy Mueller was either timid or incompetent.
That is false.
Blaming Mueller after crowing about him for so long seems hypocritical now.
Later the same day that Trump asked the Russians if they could find Hillarys emails , Russians tried to hack into Hillary Clintons private computer system.
Oh, you mean the one that was in FBI custody at the time, and not even plugged in? How'd that work out for them?
Your statement remains false despite the spin.
Trump Invited the Russians to Hack Clinton. Were They ...
Jul 14, 2018 · The same day that Donald J. Trump asked Russians for help in hacking Hillary Clinton’s emails , Russia began efforts to target her personal servers.
Except for the very fact that Trump never asked them to hack her.
So there is that.
Spinning won't make it magically different now.
The words he said are plain enough for most to understand and know he didn't even mention hacking.
Your statement was false, is false, and will always remain false.
[deleted]
Look it up if you can't figure it out.
Even in the bigger bolder font???
Oh, but it's ok when Vic does it?
Do you ever think before you post?
You worry too much about Vic. Stick to topic.
Sounds like an ask to me. Sounded like an ask to the NYT and millions of others too.
The really low part of this is that it was shortly after Russia was accused of hacking the Democratic National Committee. In other words Trump was showing his approval of that as well.
Stop wasting our time with nonsense.
[deleted]
Quite a difference from your lying stratement in post 4.1.5
Semantics; you are calling him a liar.
You and others depend on semantics to excuse bad behavior, always have
and always will
when it benefits your argument.
Nothing more is expected of you
Nobody cares. It was a statement.
Bitching like he asked Russia to hack her is preposterous. And stupid. Tellme, how DOES one hack an unplugged computer sitting in FBI custody?????????????
The things progressive liberals are willing to believe in the face of facts!!!!
Did Trump know that? Apparently not.
Did Russia know that? Maybe, maybe not.
per 4.1.1 Trump asked a foreign country to locate missing emails.
He has no honor, no couth, no sense of country.
[deleted]
Is that like being called a misogynist?
Post 4.1.5 is a lie. Trump never asked Russia to hack anything.
Who flagged it? and who made you king?
And WTF difference does that make?
Not my problem if you choose to deliberately believe lies.
And TDS is everywhere!!!
We know it's true John.
Is the report out yet?
Please link it so we all may track the partisan reaction at the same time.
What?
The report isn't released yet?
So you are just blowing your horn?
Color me surprised /s
Most likely, if the MSM can, they will leak whatever they can get their hands on, play it down as no big deal and by the time it's released call it old news.
I did note in another article that the current DoJ opted for mediation back in June
rather than proceed with Andrew McCabe's lawsuit.
Andrew will most likely be vindicated and compensated.
Welcome to reality.
You don't know????????
No, it has not been released as of yet.
Did someone say it HAS been released????
Pretty silly ask as the report has not been released.
How many times will you feel compelled to ask the same question???
Surprised isn't the word I would have chosen.
Semantics dear lad, except for the misspelling (wag) you seemed to have thought the outcome is already calcified in time. Did you confuse yourself?
Hasn't happened yet, thanks for the chicken little prediction and opinion.
Which would have to go to a DC jury.
Andrew will most likely be vindicated and compensated.
Not by historians
Oh the horror.../s
WTF does that shit even mean?
Hasn't happened yet? Oh, I see you are choosing to ignore reality again. The Great Mueller Report has been out for quite some time now. No prediction necessary to point out how some progressive liberals are acting about it.
That is called reality.
Totally surprised that you don''t know that the topic is the Durham report.
That is reality.
What are you so angry about?
A report is coming. That's all.
Is THAT why you let your TDS get the best of you again and had to deflect to Trump????
Just hilarious you have the nerve to talk about the TOPIC after that spectacular deflection.
Still waiting on those indictments from Durham or was it Turley(???) against Hillary, Barack Obama and his entire administration!