Durham Failed Because the Anti-Trump Conspiracy Was Fake

[Nevilledog]

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John Durham’s latest, and presumably final, humiliation is the capstone of his failed attempt to prove a conspiracy theory that has long been accepted as settled fact in the conservative universe. This theory holds that, in 2016, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, or James Comey (or maybe all of them — the plot’s mastermind changes in different iterations) devised a plot to smear Donald Trump by ginning up an FBI investigation into his completely innocent and superficial connections to Russia. The purpose of the scheme was to paint Trump as a Russian stooge. Somehow, the plotters forgot to activate its key step: leaking the existence of the FBI probe before the election. In any event, the planned October surprise became a January surprise, hampering Trump’s presidency until Robert Mueller was eventually forced to admit there was no collusion, after which the damage had already been done.

The actual events of this period are clear. Trump began exhibiting a suspicious pattern of behavior in relation to Russia. He lavished its dictator with praise, surrounded himself with people who were sympathetic to and/or paid by Moscow, hinted at his own business deals with Russia but defied precedent by refusing to publish his tax returns, and appointed a man who had managed the presidential run of a Russian puppet in another country as his own campaign manager.

Many people were alarmed by these things and wanted to get to the bottom of them. It is true that the same people also did not want Trump to win the election, but it completely misapprehends their motives to assume that their only goal for investigating his deeply suspicious Russia connections was a desire to smear him. If anything, this rationale is backward: Trump’s ties to Russia made national security officials oppose him. What national security official would be happy about having a president who was in bed with, and creepily submissive to, one of the country’s biggest global enemies?

The Justice Department appointed an inspector general to investigate the FBI’s probe of Trump’s ties to Russia and found that, despite some low-level mistakes, the probe had been adequately predicated. There was no evidence it was directed by Trump’s enemies, undertaken for political reasons, or fundamentally improper in conception.

*snip*

[secondwind]

1. I think that what Mueller said was..

“If there had been no collusion, I would have said so.”

He never did.

[gratuitous]

2. That does seem to be the opposite of what the source article says, doesn't it?

I'm also seeing lots of references to the "discredited" Steele dossier, when the fact is that Durham has proven approximately nothing substantial in it has been discredited. Weird how the narrative flips completely between the actual facts and the way those facts are reported.

[secondwind]

4. I hear you. It seems to be getting worse, too.

[bucolic_frolic]

3. Trump's tax returns

forgot about them. might they see the light of day sometime?

[Walleye]

5. I have a feeling the Hunter Biden investigation will eventually end with a similar fizzle

[UTUSN]

6. K&R