Below is my column in The Hill on recent reports of grand jury testimony in the Durham investigation. The implications of the grand jury — and the eventual report — have rattled folks in the Beltway this week . . . for good reason.
Here is the column:
This week Texas Rangers infielder Brock Holt became a baseball legend when he went to the mound and threw an “eephus,” a high-arching, off-speed pitch, in a game against the 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. You can find his updates on Twitter @JonathanTurley.
If there is only one indictment, please let it be Andrew Weissmann.
Andrew Weissmann would have been-at the very least- legitimately disbarred years ago with the ENRON fraud alone had he not been protected. But in reality if he were NOT protected he would have been criminally charged and prosecuted with obstruction of justice and criminal conspiracy for his ENRON/Merrill Lynch actions. The actions that were corrected by the SCOTUS in a 9-0 reversal of the “Yorkie” Pup …. 🐾😺🐾
(music)
God vac America!
Land of the free!
From the mountains and the sea sides.
Get your vac cause your priest is a whore!
What a difference a vote in the US makes around the world.
Panic rages in Afghanistan as the terrorist Taliban rapidly takes over the country. Trump had warned the Taliban that if they caused any trouble, he would send the military to their homes to blow them up. Biden begs for mercy during a route seen by terrorists round the world.
People are so terrified of what the Taliban will do to them, that 7 people clung to a plane during takeoff in Kabul, and fell to their deaths.
Women are being subjugated, and worse, right now because Biden is in office. Terrorist are being emboldened, cheering as Americans flee Afghanistan. There will be terrorist attacks, and people will die because of this.
People who hate the US do not love us when we are weak. They see an opportunity to destroy us. It gives Hamas and other terrorist organizations in Israel hope that now that Trump, the staunch ally of Israel, is out of the White House, they can boldly move forward with their plans for another Jewish holocaust.
As soon as Biden took office, drug cartel coyotes were in villages rounding up children. Children, especially when unaccompanied, are a ticket to skip the long legal immigration process. Children were killed, used as drug mules, traumatized, starved, abandoned, kidnapped, sexually abused, and died, because Biden took office.
The world is a better, safer place with a strong United States. The reverse is also true.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/using-root-route-rout
Pedantry at its finest! Thanks very much.
Creekan, you got me. I am terrible at editing before I hit “post.”
NEWSFLASH
AFGHANISTAN FALLS TO THE TALIBAN
George W. Bush’s crowning achievement crashed and burned today (thanks, George).
I think Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Diane Feinstein and Maxine Waters should make a fact-finding trip to Afghanistan (don’t lose your heads, ladies).
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Perhaps a federal judge in Afghanistan will tell the Taliban to:
– Give Afghanistan to women, freed slaves, homosexuals, transgenders and foreigners
– Pass the 19th Amendment and “Reconstruction Amendments”
– Allow abortion and propel Afghanistan’s fertility rate into a “death spiral”
– Import the population from foreign countries
– Allow freed slaves to vote for benefits, entitlements and “free stuff” from other people’s money
– Redistribute “free stuff” and largesse to all parasites
– Open the borders completely to foreign invaders
– Provide Universal Basic Income (UBI) to all lazy, dependent parasites
– Establish affirmative action, quotas, food stamps, forced busing, social services, SNAP, WIC, TANF, HAMP, HARP, HUD, HHS, “Fair Housing” laws, “Non-Discrimination” laws, gynocentric divorce laws, Muhammadcare, Social Security, Medicare, etc., etc., etc.
– Turn the education of Afghan children over to rabid, slavering, parasitic, ineffective communist teacher unions and radical feminists
– Tear down all statues of Muhammad
The Taliban has a lot on its plate, no?
“Women are being subjugated . . .”
Makes one wonder where “Me-Too” is.
The media is more than likely to ignore anything that points to wrongdoing. They have hid everything for years and blindly accepted every lie that has come out of Adam Schiff. In a non-dystopian world the realization that the press has been viciously and purposely lying for four years on just about everything would shock this country to the core. But that is not our reality, Are reality is that near half our population wants to be lied too and doubles down on the sources that lied to them. Durham’s investigation will quietly go away just like our education system that has professors at top schools saying the most vile, idiotic things imaginable just to hear their own voice. So now we can no longer trust the FBI, the CIA, the media, the Democratic party, and with Afghanistan we now know we can’t trust the Department of Defense, or the Biden State Department who lied to us about the situation there.
When truth takes too long to get out, lies have sufficient time to take hold. Those lies have had time to become firm beliefs which the truth cannot shake, at least in those who do not seek the truth.
If that’s true (which I think it is), then there is an essential flaw in the free-speech mantra of Justice Harlan (oft repeated by JT) that the antidote to deceitful information is truthful information (paraphrasing). JT is building his core philosophy around what is likely a misconception about information uptake and the order of presentation. Truth takes longer to get out because the process to verify it is longer and more cumbersome, coming up against the hiding of facts. Infowarriors have tremendous advantages in speed because they can fabricate fiction (including wild exaggeration) in an instant, and have instantaneous access to a receptive audience vis Twitter.
Justice Harlan was living in an era where you had to get past an editor to get published. The dynamics reshaped by technology render his thinking obsolete.
Anonymous, the right to speak your mind, regardless of what anyone else thinks, is one of the most basic human rights.
So many times, social media has censored what it deemed “misinformation”, only for it to turn out to be true.
Stories on Hunter’s laptop were censored as Russian misinformation. Except they were true.
If you disagree with someone, make your argument.
Most of the media is propaganda rather than news, and they don’t follow up when they truth comes out.
Here you go again. There is no “Hunter Biden laptop” story–this was made up by disgraced, suspended former lawyer Giuliani, who thought he’d come up with some dirt on Biden in October, 2020 after Trump’s disastrous first debate performance. The plan was to hit Biden with lies about Hunter, thinking Biden would get flustered and choke, but it didn’t work because it isn’t true. Trump once again came across as the rude, uninformed bully that he really is. Giuliani claims he came across a hard drive in a Delaware computer repair shop. This is from Leonnig and Rucker’s new best-seller on the last year of Trump’s disastrous fake “presidency”. No one buys this story other than alt-right media. The “stories” about “Hunter’s laptop” are NOT true no matter how many times Hannity claims they are. Where’s the proof? Provide it or shut up about it.
You think that repeating this lie is “speaking your mind”, which is something you have some perceived right to do. No, Karen. What you do is display the extent of your discipleship to alt-right media. Facts don’t faze you.
Justice Harlan was living in an era where you had to get past an editor to get published.
It is worse today. Unless you are wanting to “publish” (share) something government, you have to get past the new editors (big tech oligarchs) We saw what happened when Parler started up. All was great…until Amazon locked them out of their servers.
If you have something (contradicting government approved speech) you have very few options. Your publisher will cancell your book. TV and Radio will blackball your appearances, and even facebook will block your message to all your cousins.
The 1st amendment protected the presses, not reporters. Today the “presses” are the big tech oligarchs
Reply to Anonymous, August 16, 2021 at 12:23 PM
What you say is so (except I believe Prof. Turley quotes Louis Brandeis rather than Justice Harlan), but what is the alternative? Do people suspecting lies by the opposing party have no recourse but to quickly construct other lies to counter them, or to fabricate a similar counterattack from a different angle to usurp the narrative?
And if the general populace is so easily deceived, indeed, content or even insistent to remain within a familiar deceptive cushion from reality, is there any point to pursuing the truth? Think of Julian Assange and others who pursued the truth and attempted to reveal it to the masses—what is the reward? What is the effect? However, if there is even a slight chance of reaching the minds of a few intelligent, responsible citizens, perhaps there is a chance for improvement.
I always hope that evolution, rather than revolution, will be the path people follow to improve their situation, but that requires opening the eyes to what is going on, honestly and fairly appraising the situation, thinking things through, and taking responsibility for one’s actions and their consequences.
Excellent article, JT. Thank you.
Though it will be disappointing it will not be surprising when no senior officials in the Obama FBI, CIA or NSC, or on the Mueller SC team, face any consequences for the wrongs they did during the Obama and Trump administrations. Durham also investigated the CIA “enhanced interrogation” program and indicted no one.
Durham “will not” commit suicide.
The Obama Coup D’etat in America is the most egregious abuse of power and the most prodigious crime in American political history.
The co-conspirators are:
Kevin Clinesmith, Bill Taylor, Eric Ciaramella, Rosenstein, Mueller/Team, Andrew Weissmann,
James Comey, Christopher Wray, McCabe, Strozk, Page, Laycock, Kadzic,
Sally Yates, James Baker, Bruce Ohr, Nellie Ohr, Priestap, Kortan, Campbell,
Sir Richard Dearlove, Christopher Steele, Simpson, Joseph Mifsud,
Alexander Downer, Stefan “The Walrus” Halper, Azra Turk, Kerry, Hillary,
Huma, Mills, Brennan, Gina Haspel, Clapper, Lerner, Farkas, Power, Lynch,
Rice, Jarrett, Holder, Brazile, Sessions (patsy), Nadler, Schiff, Pelosi, Obama,
Joe Biden, James E. Boasberg, Emmet Sullivan, et al.
I just love the lengths trumpists will go to in order to make believe HRC initiated the Steele Dossier when all she really did was take on information initiated by Repubs opposition research (through the Free Beacon) on trump during the primary in ’16. Add to that, the right’s belief that the dossier is what got Mueller on track. if Durham has anything up his sleeve, it’s not the dossier. We know there’s a pee tape after all. Despite being all germaphobe we know trumpy bear likes to get way dirty when he’s got a rod and Melania won’t let him in the bedroom because of the cheeseburgers.
eb
eb:
Many lies have their root of a grain of truth. This makes the lie more believable.
Republicans did use Fusian GPS at one point to do a background check on Trump during the primaries. That was brief. Steele came on after that research ended.
It was indeed Hillary Clinton’s campaign who paid for the Steele dossier, which was fabricated. The Steele subsource said the dossier contained information that was made up, and never supposed to be presented as fact. Some information was attributed to the sub source that they had never heard of. The Clinton Campaign hired Fusion GPS on April 2016, thorough its lawyer Mike Elias.
https://checkyourfact.com/2017/10/25/fact-check-did-republicans-pay-for-the-trump-dossier/
Democrats who want to deny blame for Hillary Clinton paying for misinformation on Trump, intended as an October Surprise, and used to spy upon Trump and destabilize his presidency, while lying about her role, seize upon the fact that a Republican organization briefly ran a background check on Trump during the primaries through Fusion GPS. They don’t want to be held responsible for the Big Lie that led to millions of Americans falsely believing Trump worked for the Russians. Their excuse quickly falls apart, however, as Steele’s work was paid for by the Clinton campaign, and for an entirely different purpose.
Democrats lied for over a year about their involvement with the Steele dossier, and then they lied about the fact this dossier was fabricated. Then they lied about the fact this fabricated dossier was used to get a FISA warrant to spy upon a US President and undermine his presidency.
The truth is like a hot potato the guilty desperately want to pass on.
“The truth is like a hot potato the guilty desperately want to pass on.” -Karen S.
Like this?
“GOP Quietly Scrubs Webpage Detailing Trump’s ‘Historic Peace Agreement With the Taliban'”
“The move comes in light of the Taliban taking control of Afghanistan.”
ByShoshana Wodinsky
https://gizmodo.com/gop-quietly-scrubs-webpage-detailing-trumps-historic-pe-1847492947
Karen:
The Steele dossier is as important as road dust. It didn’t trigger the Mueller investigation. Mueller backed up part of it. Of course, trumpists have a hard time getting around the possibility of a pee tape, probably because they thought it would make him look weak. But the fact is trump talked about grabbing pussy and he was caught up in a pay off scheme to keep silent having a porn star spank him with a rolled up magazine just after his third wife gave birth. I have no doubt trump paid Russian hookers to pee in a bed he guessed that Obama had slept in.
But just as a matter of common sense re the Free Beacon initiating the dossier in the beginning…, the fact that they’re leaning on not paying for it is laughable. First, nothing happens in Washington for free. Next, nothing happens in Washington for free. And on top of that, nothing happens in Washington for free.
And the reason the dossier is not important is because trump immediately, through his own actions in office, began to undermine his own presidency. He couldn’t help himself. He began working hard to get impeached, twice, really hard. He just knew he had the jury fixed, and indeed, that kept him from being removed.
eb
Karen: please stop—please. You are the one who constantly spouts lies and refuses to accept facts–like the Hydroxychloroquine hoax you keep trying to perpetrate. No one said Trump “worked for” the Russians. You have been corrected numerous times about this, including your erroneous reference to “The Manchurian Candidate”. What people have said, and which is the truth is that Trump cheated to get into office with the help of Russia. His campaign directed Russian hackers to districts where support for Hillary Clinton was soft enough that lies spread via social media might sway enough votes to get the Electoral College vote. Trump still lost the popular vote. That’s what happened. Trump discussed top secret information with Russians in the Oval Office. Jared had a back-channel to the Russians. Trump publicly sided with Putin in Helsinki and directly contradicted the conclusions of American Intelligence, including Dan Coats, his own appointed head of US Intelligence, about Russians spreading lies about Hillary Clinton on social media.
Trump’s “presidency” was phony from the get-go. Most Americans never voted for him, and he never even got a 50% approval rating, and this is because most Americans see him for what he is: a braggadocious liar, a vainglory-seeking narcissist who bullies people to get his way, a cheater, misogynist, racist and xenophobe. Trump didn’t need anyone’s help to “destabilize” his fake “presidency”. He is no leader. He is no deal-maker, or policy-maker, either. His fake “presidency’ was pock marked with an historical number departures of cabinet members and agency heads. It was chaotic, he had little interest in the PDB, which had to be dumbed down for him because he didn’t care enough to pay attention for very long, and he spent most of his time watching television, mostly hoping to see praise and glory for himself.
You don’t get to co-opt the title of “Big Lie” by spreading another lie.The Steele Dossier was NOT how the Mueller investigation got started, and nobody cares about it now. Stop telling that lie. And, where’s the proof that it contains lies, anyway? I’m going to call you out every single time you do it. The “Big Lie” is Trump’s endless lie, despite all possible evidence to the contrary, despite all polls and predictions, that the election was somehow stolen from him.
Both Republicans and Democrats hired the same opposition research company.
That in no way suggests the Republicans started the russial collusion hoax on the nation That rests with Clintons wife and the DNC.
Clintons wife is the source of Obama not being born in the US thus not qualified to be President.
As per the logic of eb
nah…that’s your logic.
eb
The Durham report is not that important since we all know the essence of the truth of the swamp. Having an official indictment of these swamp rats will never happen because of the interwoven connection of all of them. Nice to know the truth may lie somewhere in a file for all eternity though.
Durham better check the brakes every time he gets in the car.
Never have so many waited so long for so little.
I am not hopeful that this will be anything more than Durham providing the minimum necessary to provide a report.
Hope that I am wrong.
Rich politicians like Clinton think nothing of throwing the entire country into turmoil to save their own dirty skin. The question is: What kind of a system is it that allows them to get away with it?
Nothing……will……happen. The press is not going to quit its religion all of a sudden. They will still justify it to because removing the mean tweeter is and was existential to them. We have gutless judges. And don’t tell me otherwise. I practiced long enough to see many of them in lesser situations either corruptly favor one side or do something wrong to prevent the heat from the press and mob from burning them.
The press is not going to quit its religion all of a sudden.
Good point! These are the same people that mock Christians for their faith. If the Bible had even 1 of the multitude of lies that have been revealed regarding the Trump/Russia collusion theory, Christianity would be dead. These Leftists are not only anti-God, they are anti-rule of law, anti-rights. They are unrepentant and irredeemable. They are flat out evil. Round them up, put them on a C-17 and drop them on the tarmac in Kabul, Afghanistan.
The Durham investigation is the greatest political witch-hunt in the history of the United States.
I understand your fear. Thanks for sharing.
If you Trumpists can call the Meuller investigation a “witch-hunt,” I’m at liberty to call the Durham investigation one. Thanks for your understanding.
Nothing happens to these people.
Communist have never been voted out.
Nice analogy. I’m not a baseball fan but I’m going to check that out.
Google Bill “Spaceman” Lee. You’ll be amazed and amused.
The shoe is now firmly placed on the other foot.
For once, it would be refreshing to hear someone actually tell truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth and swear it publicly, under oath and before God.
And what Planet did you live on in the 4 years of the trump administration to ask such a question.
If only. We’ve read so many reports of “smoking guns” and “bombshell revelations” for years. For the truth to see the light of day would be a bombshell in itself.
Is Durham the name of a town in North Carolina?
I’m not a fan of baseball whatsoever. Furthermore I’m not a sports fan of any kind of sports because they have been taken over a long time ago by disgusting pieces of black-thug-scum. To give you an idea how long it’s been since I watched football, I quit when the league stopped fining these arrogant black-ex-ghetto thugs for doing back-flips in the end-zone. And then doing their ridiculous dances.
And I quit watching baseball when Nolan, MR-FAST-BASEBALL, Ryan retired. But I digress. As far as I’m concerned, There was no reason for his investigation to take this damn long. No one Will ever be able to convince me otherwise. This I do know, no other man as President in the history of our nation has ever been hounded, ever been mocked, made a fool of, lied about by the hundreds-of-times, more then Donald Trump. NOT EVEN CLOSE.
And we’ve never had a President in the history of our nation that the people in his own party, people of, of his own party, turned there backs on and spoke out against that President!! Think George Bush Junior, and all the garbage he spewed out against President Trump. He proved beyond a shadow of a doubt how much of a dingleberry he really is and he proved beyond a shadow of a doubt how much of a stone cold RINO he really is.
Smiling and mugging for the camera while embracing!!!! Embracing!!!! that pure piece of garbage Barack Obama!!! both of these men I absolutely despise and if we ever had a real revolution in this country, a real coup d’état, how I would ❤️ love, I mean love!!!! To be the executioner of these 2!!! And many many more.
Let me close with this, because once again I got off track because I’m so passionate about my beliefs, IF NO ONE HIGH UP GOES TO JAIL, THIS INVESTIGATION WILL BE MEANINGLESS!!! IT WILL BE ALL FOR NOTHING!!!
The next step is the California recall. Get rid of Newsom. Then Pelosi retires after she loses the House in the midterms. Then R’s take back the White House in 2024.
It’s coming. It will happen.
We must vote OUT all of the RINO Republicans. Sweep them all OUT of office.
Yes it is.