John Durham Admits He Knows Little About Russia Scandal
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Former special counsel John Durham, who tried and utterly failed to prove that the Russia investigation was a vast anti-Trump conspiracy, testified Wednesday before the House about his work. Durham's hearing interestingly revealed a possible explanation for why he threw away a sterling reputation to work with William Barr fruitlessly pursuing a right-wing conspiracy theory: The man seems to have become so hopelessly brain-poisoned by Fox News he has lost all touch with facts outside the Republican information bubble.
More specifically, Durham seemed to be unaware of the major factual elements of the alliance between the Trump campaign and Russia. This ignorance came through in several awkward exchanges with Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee panel.
Eric Swalwell asked Durham about how Trump "tried and concealed from the public a real-estate deal he was seeking in Moscow." This was a deal, described in the Mueller report, in which the Russian government promised Trump several hundreds of millions of dollars in profit at no risk to himself to license a tower in Moscow. The proposed payoff, and Trump's public lies at the time about it, gave Russia enormous leverage over his campaign. Durham replied, "I don't know anything about that."
When Adam Schiff asked Durham if the Russians released stolen information through cutouts, he replied, "I'm not sure." Schiff responded, "The answer is yes," to which Durham reported, "In your mind, it's yes."
When Schiff asked Durham if he knew that, hours after Trump publicly asked Russia to find Hillary Clinton's State Department emails and release them, Russian hackers made an attempt to hack Clinton emails, Durham replied, "If that happened, I'm not aware of that."
When asked if Trump referred to those stolen emails more than 100 times on the campaign trail, Durham answered, "I don't really read the newspapers and listen to the news."
And when Schiff asked Durham if he was aware that Trump's campaign manager, Paul Manafort, passed on polling data to Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian intelligence agent, at the time Russia was conducting both a social-media campaign and the release of stolen documents to help Trump, Durham replied, "You may be getting beyond the depth of my knowledge."
David Corn reacted incredulously to the last profession of ignorance. "The Manafort-Kilimnik connection — which the Senate Intelligence Committee report characterized as a 'grave counterintelligence threat' — is one of the most serious and still not fully explained components of the Trump-Russia scandal," he writes. "It is inconceivable that Durham is unaware of this troubling link."
On the contrary, it is highly conceivable Durham is unaware of this link. It would, indeed, explain his whole pattern of behavior. If you're not aware of the major evidence of the alliance between Trump and Russia that was unfolding largely in secret, then of course you would assume the FBI investigation into Trump's ties to Russia was a witch hunt.
It may seem inconceivable that a high-ranking government official like Durham would have no familiarity with facts pertinent to his work. But there are many powerful Republicans who long ago decided to ignore mainstream media — "I don't really read the newspapers and listen to the news," as he put it — and rely on Republican Party-controlled media to understand the world.
Durham claimed to not read or watch the news!
He didn't need to know about Russian collusion claims. He was charged with investigating whether or not the FBI should have conducted an investigation. Better he not know wouldn't you say?
And imagine that, they had nothing to investigate once you remove the fabricated claims the Democrats provided. I know, it's with the evidence Schiff claimed he has.
The TDS driven are desperately trying to save themselves.
They will use any spin to try and discredit someone that says something they don't like, even if it makes no sense. Next expect an expose on him using too many squares of toilet paper.
Durham's investigation was a complete dud.
The CIA and FBI investigations (plural) of Trump's Russian connections were legally predicated and predated the Presidential election by years. Trump was colluding with Putin to build a Trump Tower in Moscow right up to election day in 2016, and lying!
They? As in every reputable news source?
No matter how much you spam that, it's still not going to be fact.
In how many more seeds are you going to spread this lie today?
There was nothing illegal about building a hotel. Nothing you claim about conversations, deals confirmed, or promises made can be proven, and you can't show any evidence to the contrary
As in every reputable news source?
There is no such thing. There are only sources that say what you want to hear.
Secretly negotiating with Vlad Putin to build a five hundred million dollar Trump Tower in Moscow right across the street from the Kremlin in the lead up to the 2016 election while lying to the American people is "colluding with the Russians"!
No, because it is what Durham set out to do but failed miserably to accomplish...
What part of that can't you understand?
Because you and your MAGA cohorts STILL cannot admit that the origins of the CIA and FBI probes (plural) of Donald Trump's Russian connections were legally predicated and long predated the 2016 Presidential election. That they were initiated because Trump sought out and met with and established long term relationships with Russian spies and assorted secret agents of Putin's Russian State Intelligence Services whom they routinely monitor, because that is what all national intelligence services do...
There is no need to prove anything else...
Durham set out to prove that the CIA and FBI probes of Trump's Russian dealings were not legally predicated. He FAILED!
No, that is inaccurate and wrong because the American people needed to know that Trump had colluded with Putin and lied to them about it from the very start to his finish. He got whooped because of it!
And, that ain't "Nothing"...
Nope.
For the 1,000 time. Trump never planned to build any tower in Russia. Michael Cohen and the Trump co had preliminary discussions about licensing the name "Trump Tower" to Russian developers who would build, own and operate the tower. Putin wasn't involved. Trump himself wasn't involved in the discussions.
s "colluding with the Russians"!
How do you still not know what the word collusion means? Two business organizations discussing the possibility of licensing a brand name is not, in any sense of the word, collusion.
Durham set out to investigate what the basis for the FBI investigation based on evidence and found they didn't really have the grounds to do so.
Bullshit. He won the election and was in office when this crap was perpetrated. The only "whooping" he took was in 2020 and Covid was a big part of that.........you can't change history FFS but I know you will keep trying.................
Lol. You still can't even show probes (plural) occurred. Why don't you start there?
All you do is spin falsehoods, ignore requests for proof, and then demand other people dispute the origins of imaginary probes you made up.
Durham proved that the whole collusion hoax was based on false information that was paid for by the Clinton campaign that was presented to FISA court to start illegal surveillance. There was never a legitimate predicate to warrant any investigation into Trump's activities
No he didn't. He doesn't even claim he did...
Did you even watch the hearing, or did you just watch MSNBC "analysis" and decide it was good enough for you?
I saw Durham admit he didn't know shit!
So the MSNBC analysis?
What did he not know that was within the scope of his responsibilities and investigation parameters?
It was on live TV where Durham said so!
What did he not know that was within the scope of his responsibilities and investigation parameters?
That Trump lied to us about everything!
That the CIA and FBI probes of Trump's Russian dealings were legally predicated based on Trump's secretive relationships with clandestine agents of Vlad Putin's Russian State Intelligence Services...
John Durham set out to prove otherwise.
But, John Durham failed to accomplish it.
They found Trump colluded with Putin!
How do you possibly believe this? How many more times do you need to be spoon fed the widely reported and undisputed fact that the predicate of the investigation was Papadopoulos's drunken talk to a Australian diplomat. That's it.
It's really incredible. It's a complete denial of reality. He just makes things up and repeats it over and over and over. It's NTAnon.
Mueller come up empty. Durham wasn't provided ANYTHING to substantiate an investigation into it.
I guess it was only found in your head.
So you have a link?
Nice rant. Above and beyond the fact it is not true you never answered the actual question.
Why do you bother?
Honesty in publishing. Kudos.
Sick burn.
Its amazing how content free right wing comments are on this site.
Oh but thread 2's opening comment was sooooooo full of meaningful banter /s
Its amazing how content free right wing comments are on this site.
It's amazing you'd make this comment in yet another seed that contains only memes and outright lies from leftwingers.
i would bet on hal being more able to post meaningful content on this site than the right wingers any day of the week
Of course you would. You would be in danger of losing a few partisan hack awards if you backed anything other than dem talking points.
It's amazing you'd make this comment in yet another seed that contains only memes and outright lies from leftwingers.
Durham’s testimony in front of the House proclaims that he knew far, far less than the average American about events that are germane to the horrifically expensive and failed investigation he conducted. Of course he’s lying, but given his narrative there’s not much anyone can comment on about it.
About as much content as one of your "Smoking Gun" articles.
Thanks for acknowledging that. For once, you're being honestl
Gee, you couldn’t come up with an original sick burn so you stole Jim’s?
One must wonder why at the end of the day Dems were happier with Durham than Repubs were ... was it because Repubs believed their own crap?
What crap was that? Durham showed just how dishonest and corrupt the Dems are.
I guess you were primed to hear what you wanted to.