Special Counsel John Durham’s report was issued on May 12, 2023 and it is most notable for what is not in it, rather than what it reveals.
Durham concluded that the FBI should never have launched a full investigation into connections between Donald Trump’s campaign and Russia during the 2016 election. While Durham delivered a report that scolded the F.B.I., the investigation failed to deliver indictments of any of the major malefactors identified in the investigation.
Unlike Inspector General Horowitz, who first questioned the basis for the Trump – Russia investigation, Special Counsel Durham had all the power he needed to subpoena witnesses and documents. However, none of the known major players in the creation of the false narrative about Donald Trump and Russia were questioned, let alone seriously interrogated:
Peter Strzok: No Interview. No Subpoena.
Andrew McCabe: No Interview. No Subpoena.
James Comey: No Interview. No Subpoena.
Glenn Simpson: No Interview. No Subpoena.
And the one indictment that Durham did bring, that of Michael Sussman, ended with Sussman being found not guilty by a Washington, DC jury so liberal and so biased against Donald Trump and Republicans it would have found John Wilkes Booth not guilty of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
The Durham report provides a lot of detail on conflicts in the statements by the FBI and major players, but again no indictments.
Despite the New York Times declaring that Durham uncovered no “deep state conspiracy” we are not sure what else one might call the collusion between Bruce and Nellie Ohr, Glenn Simpson and various others.
And how else would you describe the coterie of high-level Obama-era officials including then-President Barack Obama, then-Vice President Joe Biden, then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch, then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and then-FBI Director James Comey who all knew the whole Trump-Russia collusion narrative was a lie and stayed silent or even promoted it?
Good old boy network “confirmation bias” would seem to be about as far as Special Counsel Durham was willing to go.
“The Durham report reads like the tombstone for the justice system,” former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes told Fox News Sunday. “And it would say something simple, like, ‘Here lies the justice system, the Justice Department, and we knew there was criminality, and we couldn’t do anything about it.’”
“That’s really what the Durham report says,” Nunes continued. “There’s a lot of great information in there, but nothing has been done.”
FLASH UPDATE: Paul Sperry reports, via Twitter, that “HPSCI sources tell me that former Chairman Nunes sent Special Counsel John Durham more than a dozen criminal referrals -- including for alleged perjury by witnesses including former FBI official Andrew McCabe -- yet Durham sought grand jury indictments on none of them.”
As things stand now the Durham Report appears to be a dead end with no indictments forthcoming and little establishment media attention to inform the average American voter that, no, candidate and President Trump did not “collude” with Russia.
However, we don’t think the Durham Report is a dead end, because it provides a clear roadmap of the basic facts behind the lies that tore the country apart for four years, and those facts deserve further investigation and airing that congressional committee hearings could give them.
So, even though Durham did not subpoena Peter Strzok, Andrew McCabe, James Comey, Glenn Simpson, and the rest of the major players, Rep. Jim Jordan, as Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, certainly can, and should subpoena and question them under oath.
And if they lie, they can and should be prosecuted for lying to Congress, or better yet if the facts warrant it, they can and should be impeached.
Prof. Neil H. Buchanan, of the University of Florida's Levin College of Law, wrote in urging that President Trump be impeached after leaving office, “As far as the Constitution tells us, Congress could impeach anyone it wants, anytime it wants. Again, the only thing that Article II, Section 4 tells us is that if a person is convicted and is currently holding office, then he shall be removed. Republicans want to rewrite that provision to say that the only time that Congress can hold impeachment proceedings is when a president is still in office, but that is not what the provision says.”
If, as Prof. Buchanan suggested, former President Trump could be impeached after leaving office, then on the basis of what the Durham Report found to be a web of carefully constructed lies advanced by a conspiracy among Obama-era elected and appointed officials, why shouldn’t the conspirators be investigated, tried and impeached if – as Prof. Buchanan wrote – “Congress could impeach anyone it wants, anytime it wants.”
The Republican Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee is Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio. The Capitol Switchboard is (202-224-3121) we urge CHQ readers and friends to call Chairman Jordan to demand he subpoena Peter Strzok, Andrew McCabe, James Comey, Glenn Simpson, and the rest of the major players in the Trump-Russia hoax, put them under oath in public hearings and move articles of impeachment against them if warranted.
Christopher Steele
Steele dossier
John Durham investigation
Igor Danchenko
Charles Dolan Jr.
Russian collusion
Barack Obama
Joe Biden
Deep state
Primary Sub-Source (PSS)
lying to FBI agents
FISA Court
Mueller investigation
Perkins-Coie law firm
Fusion GPS PR firm
Michael Sussman
Durham report