And, scene.
Lord, God. Whew.
Here are some of my other notes from the hearing: My comments are in brackets.
Durham stated during the opening of his testimony that the "threat from Russia was serious."
Durham stated in response to a question from Rep Johnson that Peter Strzok had a "personal bias" against Trump, but he ignores that the Inspector General found that Strzok didn't let his personal feelings impact his professional work.
Durham stated "not that I know of" when asked if there was any "evidence of collusion" or "contact with Russian Intelligence"by the Trump campaign
.
[Yeah, except for Papadopoulos with Tamofeev, Manafort with Kilimnick, and Don Jr. with Veselnitskaya there was no contact at all. Also Roger Stone going through a reporter from RT to reach and communicate with Wikileaks.]
Under questioning from Nadler he agreed that his report states that the FBI had an "affirmative obligation" to investigate reports of links between Trump and Russia.
He repeated "there was a real Russian threat" when asked by Nadler if he agreed with the 2017 Intel assessment that Putin had ordered a political influence campaign against Hillary Clinton, and in favor of Trump.
Under questioning from Rep. Fry Durham agreed that the Crossfire Hurricane investigation suffered from "confirmation bias" and rejected evidence that conflicted with their narrative.
Responding to Rep. Lofgren he stated that looking at the hacking of the DNC was "outside the scope" of what he was asked to do, which is weird because that hack was tied directly to why the investigation was started by the report from Ambassador Downer.
He also said he was not asked to look at the meeting in Trump Tower between a Russian lawyer - who brought a GRU agent with her -and Don Trump Jr., Jared and Manafort.
Lofgren asked about whether they investigated a report from Italian officials who told him and Barr that Trump was involved in "financial crimes" but he stated he wasn't allowed to answer by DOJ rules.
Adam Schiff — who had been granted time by Lofgren before his own actually question time — pointed out that Durham violated DOJ protocols to criticize the Inspector General for saying that the Russia Investigation had been properly predicated. [Speaking of confirmation bias.].
He answered, "I didn't know I was violating some policy." [Face palm!]
Here’s more of that conversation from Raw Story.
"Mr. Durham, you're aware of Donald Trump's public statements along the lines of, hey, Russia, if you're listening, hack Hillary's emails, you'll be richly rewarded by the press," the lawmaker reminded the witness.
"I'm aware of that," Durham admitted.
"You're aware that Mueller found that hours after he made that plea for Russian help, the Russians, in fact, tried to hack one of the email servers affiliated with the Clinton campaign or family?" Schiff pressed.
"If that happened, I'm not aware of that," the former special counsel replied.
“If” that happened? Yes, it fucking happened.
It was the Clinton Campaign. The Russians tried to hack their way into her campaign that same night that Trump said to do it. They were literally taking orders from him.
"You're not aware of that in the Mueller report?" Schiff gasped. "When you say you're not aware of evidence of collusion in the Mueller report, it's because apparently you haven't read the Mueller report very well."
"I'm not aware of that fact," Durham repeated.
After a barrage of questions recalling how Russia worked to benefit the Trump campaign, Schiff concluded by offering a new definition of collusion.
"They don't want to call collusion," Schiff said of Republicans. "Maybe there's a better name for it. Maybe they would prefer we just call it good old-fashioned GOP cheating with the enemy. Maybe that would be a little bit more accurate description."
"Because this is what happened, but they seem allergic to calling it for what it is," he asserted.
[Jezzzus!]
Rep. Barbara Lee got Durham to admit that although he was supposed to be "independent" he had far more than a dozen interactions with AG Bill Barr. Admittedly, this was before he was Special Counsel - so his independence was from Merrick Garland, not Bill Barr.
Rep. Cline got Durham to agree that the FBI "didn't have an adequate basis to start Crossfire Hurricane" [Except that he had previously stated they did because "Russia was a serious threat."]
He stated that Papadoplous wasn't told anything about "emails" only a "suggestion of a suggestion."
[Then why did Ambassador Downer go to the FBI after he heard that the DNC had been hacked? Because he’d been told by Trump staffer Papadopoulos that Russian operatives had previously claimed credit for the hack. And somehow Paps wasn’t told about emails? How's that work?]
Durham then claims the discussion in Trump Tower with Don Jr was about "adoptions."
[It was about dropping the Magnitski sanctions on Russia in exchange for political dirt - allegations that Clinton had received illegal campaign contributions from Russia via whistleblowing U.S. businessman Bill Browder, who had been Magnitski’s boss when he was murdered in a Russia Jail. Putin had canceled US adoptions in retaliation for the sanctions. But apparently, Durham just doesn’t know any of this shit.]
Rep Cohen asked why Durham didn't investigate Manafort's connection to Kilimnick and their discussion of internal polling data? "[Kilimnick] met with a lot of people."
[He did what? Manafort associate Alex Van Der Zwaan was prosecuted and convicted for lying about Manafort assistant Rick Gates being in contact with Kilimnick, but Durham says “he met with a lot of people?” Fuck!]
Cohen asked "Why didn't you look into that [collusion]?"
Durham answered "My assignment was to look into the conduct of the intelligence agencies, not to conduct a separate investigation that was done by the Senate, House or Mueller."
[So exactly how the fuck are you determining there *wasn't* Collusion then?]
Under questioning from Rep. Johnson, Durham admits that he was only able to indict two persons (both of which cases he lost). He wasn't able to indict James Comey, CIA Director Brennan, Barack Obama, Joe Biden or Hunter Biden. "That's correct."
Durham argues back and grumbles "a Grand Jury indicted him" when Johnson points out the Clinton lawyer Michael Sussman was "acquitted by a jury of 12." When asked if he charged anyone with being part of a "hoax against Donald Trump" he responds "I wouldn't say that."
[!!!! He charged two cases of “Lying to the FBI.” He lost them both, no allegations of any “plot” was in the charges. Durham's “theory of the case” had been that the Clinton paid for Steele Dossier wrongly started the FBI investigation [even though the investigation had
already been started by Downer two months previously], and they should have found it “not credible” and dropped everything right away. He prosecuted Sussman for telling the FBI there was a link between a Trump and Russian server, which was true. They prosecuted Danchenko under the theory that he had worked with Clinton and supplied info to Steele under the idea that he fed him a fake story about the Moscow Ritz Carlton and the hookers. He argued that Danchenko “lied” when he didn’t mention his links to Clinton. However, Trump’s bodyguard Keith Schiller testified that he *was*
in the Hotel on that night and he was offered Four Hookers — so again, not a hoax that came from Hillary Clinton. There was no “Plot” to frame Trump with fake info from Clinton.]
Johnson continues "You referred in your report to Sussman and Danchenko as if they had been convicted at trial, when they were acquitted and your allegations disproven. Do you think it's ethical to state something as a fact in an official document when the court found that you could not prove the allegation?"
Durham answered "Well if you looked at the report we talked about the trial and all the evidence, including some that was not admissible"
[if it’s not admissible, then it doesn't fracking count a Constitutional Evidence. You don’t to argue for it in your report when it was thrown out of court.]
Johnson: "You failed to find the investigation was politically motivated and a Deep State conspiracy..."
Durham: "That is not what I was investigating."
[Say what now?]
Johnson: "You found it to be false, isn't that correct:?"
Durham: "If you had a chance to read the report...we lay the facts out on these matters, I'm not here to talk about Trump, the Deep State or whatever."
[Then why are you fucking. here?!! To nitpick about administrative paper shuffling?]
"Nobody has raised the argument as to whether [the report is] factually accurate"
[They have about the meetings with Kilimnick and Veselnitskiya.]
What a total shit show.
The bottom line is this, Mueller found a shitload of “collusion.” He prosecuted and convicted 5 people for it, all of whom lied about their contact with Russians. But technically, collusion isn’t a crime. If they hadn’t lied they wouldn’t have gone to jail. That’s why Don Jr. didn’t go to jail after meeting with Veselnitskaya — he didn’t lie about it.
The worst case of this contact was Roger Stone who reached out and communicated with Wikileaks — going through a Russian reporter at RT who had interviewed Julian Assange — and discovered that they had additional emails from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta. He shared this information with Trump according to testimony from Rick Gates.
THAT. IS. COLLUSION.
But again, collusion is not a crime. What Mueller didn’t find, and didn’t charge was a vast illegal Conspiracy between the Trumpsters and the Russians. They weren’t working in deliberate coordination, they were acting independently — but toward the same goal. Also, he wasn’t allowed by DOJ rules to indict and prosecute Trump while he was in the White House. He might have been able to find a conspiracy and get witnesses to it, if Trump wasn’t dangling a pardon for Flynn, Stone and Manafort. It was likely right there but they all lied, and stayed quiet about the details of the communications with Russians — even after they were convicted — until Trump finally let them all go free.
So he prosecuted the Russians and all the liars, and he left a list of 10 cases of Obstruction by Trump and he closed up shop. Bill Barr killed his prosecution of the Russian Troll Farm and he wrongfully
shot down all his cases of obstruction against Trump. Barr torpedoed the whole thing.
Then he put Durham on the case, who only got a guity plea from FBI lawyer Clineman for having a typo in an email about Carter Page.
That’s it. That’s all. Every other case, he lost.
Gaetz and Durham sparred over the scope of the special counsel’s investigation into the origins of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of the Trump administration over allegations the former president’s campaign coordinated with Russia in 2016 to damage his political opponent, Hillary Clinton.
Durham’s report was critical of the FBI and the Department of Justice’s handling of the Russia probe, but Gaetz suggested Durham didn’t go far enough.
The exchange between Gaetz and Durham got especially testy after the Florida congressman accused the special counsel’s office of failing to investigate Mueller’s team wiping its phones, which Gaetz suggested contained evidence of wrongdoing.
“That was not something that we were asked to look at,” Durham said.
Gaetz interrupted, saying “That's not true.”
“I'm holding a document that authorizes your activity and it specifically says the investigation of Special Counsel Robert Mueller."
After Durham disputed Gaetz’s characterization of the scope of the special counsel’s investigation, the Florida congressman alleged that Durham was involved in a “cover up.”
“The FBI did a bunch of wrong and corrupt things. Totally understand. We're trying to deal with that. But when you are part of the cover up, Mr. Durham, and it makes our job harder,” Gaetz said.
Durham slammed Gaetz, calling his remark “offensive.”
“Yeah, well if that's your thought, I mean, there's no way of dissuading you from that, I can tell you that it's offensive, and that the people who worked on this investigation have spent their lives trying to protect people in this country and pursue within the law what it is that we can authorize to do.”
Durham didn't find what they think he should have found. He didn’t find the Deep State. He didn't find the evil plot against Trump. So instead of thinking, “Gee, I guess there was no plot against Trump” the MAGA mind goes — “He’s Part of it!”
Because of course, they do.
The end.