Durham's Investigations Fizzles

[finnbow]

Originally Posted by whell

Weak. Barr's report is only a couple weeks old. If there was any weight to the allegations of collusion or obstruction, where's Justice been for the last 2.5 years?

AG Garland definitely cut him a lot of slack due to the optics of a newly-elected president prosecuting a former president and opponent. A prosecution of Individual #1 on the Stormy Daniels affair was a slam dunk and a strong case existed for obstruction in L'affaire Russe. Garland wanted to start out with a clean slate and not bog down the DOJ prosecuting an assclown like Trump with all the attendant distractions to a new administration, threats of violence, etc.

Then Dear Leader upset the apple cart by conspiring to defraud the United States resulting in a violent insurrection and stealing hundreds of our nation's top secrets and obstructing their recovery. The latter two cases are more than enough to keep DOJ busy without prosecuting the former cases, considering Trump's shenanigans also helped dump a thousand new criminal Jan. 6 defendants on their doorstep. Prosecutorial discretion, you know.

[whell]

Originally Posted by finnbow

Bullshit. The DOE-IG, the SSCI and Durham himself all agreed that Crossfire Hurricane was properly predicated. .

BULLSHIT. Quote for me anywhere in Durham's report where he states Crossfire Hurricane was properly predicated.

Here, I'll help you, 'cuz you look like you need it:

As discussed throughout this report, our investigation revealed that the
stated basis for opening a full investigation "to determine whether individual(s) associated with the Trump campaign [were] witting of and/or coordinating activities with the Government of Russia" was seriously flawed. Again, the FBI's failure to critically analyze information that ran counter to the narrative of a Trump/Russia collusive relationship exhibited throughout Crossfire Hurricane is extremely troublesome. The evidence of the FBI's confirmation bias the matter, includes, at a minimum, the following information that was simply ignored or in
some fashion rationalized away:

• The Australian diplomats told Crossfire Hurricane investigators that Papadopoulos never stated that he had any direct contact with the Russians nor did he provide any explicit information about an offer of assistance.
• There was a complete lack of information from the Intelligence Community that corroborated the hypothesis upon which the Crossfire Hurricane investigation was predicated.
• The FBI generally ignored the significant exculpatory information provided by Carter Page, George Papadopoulos, and Trump Senior Foreign Policy Advisor-1 during recorded conversations with FBI CHSs.
• The FBI failed to pursue investigative leads that were inconsistent with their theory of the case (e.g., Page's recorded denials of having any relationship with Paul Manafort, a fact about which there was available evidence).
• The FBI failed to take Page up on the written offer he made to Director Corney to be interviewed about the allegations contained in Michael Isikoff's Yahoo News article and instead opted to seek FISA surveillance of Page.
• The FBI was willing to make use of the completely unvetted and uncorroborated Steele reporting in multiple FISA applications targeting a U.S. citizen, even after the Crossfire Hurricane investigators had determined that there were major conflicts between the reporting of Steele and his primary sub-source, Igor Danchenko - conflicts the FBI incredibly failed to resolve.

And there's more. I'd suggest you actually read Durham's report before making statements about what it does or does not contain.

The section above ends with this statement:

An objective and honest assessment of these strands of information should have caused the FBI to question not only the predication for Crossfire Hurricane, but also to reflect on whether the FBI was being
manipulated for political or other purposes. Unfortunately, it did not.

And finally, this interesting tidbit from the IG's investigation into Crossfire Hurricane states that the investigators "repeatedly ignore[ d] or explain[ ed] away evidence contrary to the theory the Trump campaign ... had conspired with Russia .... It appeared that ... there was a pattern of assuming nefarious intent.

Sounds like you guys would have fit right in with the Crossfire Hurricane investigative team.

[finnbow]

In addition to the Durham investigation fizzling and revealing itself to have been the "weaponization of government" that the Trump and the GOP constantly wail about, now we find out that Trump also had an investigation of Hillary running the entire length of his presidency long past the point where the DOJ insisted that there "was no case to bring."

The Justice Department kept open the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s family foundation for nearly all of President Donald J. Trump’s administration, with prosecutors closing the case without charges just days before he left office.

Newly released documents and interviews with former department officials show that the investigation stretched long past when F.B.I. agents and prosecutors knew it was a dead end. The conclusion of the case, which centered on the Clinton Foundation’s dealings with foreign donors when Mrs. Clinton served as secretary of state under President Barack Obama, has not previously been reported.

Mr. Trump, who campaigned on a promise to “lock her up,” spent much of his four-year term pressuring the F.B.I. and the Justice Department to target political rivals. After being accused by the president’s allies of serving as part of a deep-state cabal working against him, F.B.I. officials insisted that the department acknowledge in writing that there was no case to bring.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/22/u...oundation.html

So much for Whell's theory that Hillary did something illegal to jumpstart Crossfire Hurricane. Both Durham and now another team (under pressure from Barr and Trump) tried to prove it for 4 years and came up empty.

[whell]

Originally Posted by finnbow

AG Garland definitely cut him a lot of slack due to the optics of a newly-elected president prosecuting a former president and opponent. A prosecution of Individual #1 on the Stormy Daniels affair was a slam dunk and a strong case existed for obstruction in L'affaire Russe. Garland wanted to start out with a clean slate and not bog down the DOJ prosecuting an assclown like Trump with all the attendant distractions to a new administration, threats of violence, etc.

So Garland then TOTALLY screws up ordering a raid on Mar a Lago which ended up ensnaring his boss. Totally inconsistent with your claim about not wanting to "bog down the DOJ prosecuting an assclown like Trump".

[whell]

Originally Posted by finnbow

So much for Whell's theory that Hillary did something illegal to jumpstart Crossfire Hurricane.

Now you're just making shit up. Find a post where I stated what the Clinton campaign did was illegal. My beef is with the FBI and Justice, not Hillary.

[finnbow]

Originally Posted by whell

So Garland then TOTALLY screws up ordering a raid on Mar a Lago which ended up ensnaring his boss. Totally inconsistent with your claim about not wanting to "bog down the DOJ prosecuting an assclown like Trump".

Nope. Trump (and the subsequent Jan. 6 Committee) forced Garland's hand. Trump just added to his own troubles by stealing all the documents and engaging in his trademark obstruction.

[finnbow]

Originally Posted by whell

Now you're just making shit up. Find a post where I stated what the Clinton campaign did was illegal. My beef is with the FBI and Justice, not Hillary.

You were bitching and moaning about Hillary in several of your too-long-to-fully-read posts that I understood to assert that Hillary, Comey and other "Deep State" characters at the DOJ/FBI somehow conspired to undermine Dear Leader. You have been spewing that nonsense for years. If true, it would be illegal. If illegal, she (and others) would have been prosecuted by two teams of investigators Trump sicced on her. She wasn't and your Dear Leader didn't get to "lock her up." Sad.

Sorry if I can't clearly follow all of the conspiracy theories you've peddled here to exonerate Dear Leader. They are just too numerous and inane.

[whell]

Originally Posted by finnbow

You were bitching and moaning about Hillary in several of your too-long-to-fully-read posts that I understood to assert that Hillary, Comey and other "Deep State" characters at the DOJ/FBI somehow conspired to undermine Dear Leader. You have been spewing that nonsense for years. If true, it would be illegal. If illegal, she (and others) would have been prosecuted by two teams of investigators Trump sicced on her. She wasn't and your Dear Leader didn't get to "lock her up." Sad.

Sorry if I can't clearly follow all of the conspiracy theories you've peddled here to exonerate Dear Leader. They are just too numerous and inane.

Repeating the facts about what the Clinton campaign did or didn't do isn't "bitching". The facts are what they are. Just because you choose to ignore them doesn't make them "conspiracy theories".

Or are you suggesting that the DOJ IG was "peddling" conspiracy theories when he wrote regarding the Crossfire Hurricane investigators:

It appeared that ... there was a pattern of assuming nefarious intent.

Franking, I think Horowitz was trying to be kind when he wrote that.

[finnbow]

Originally Posted by whell

Repeating the facts about what the Clinton campaign did or didn't do isn't "bitching". The facts are what they are. Just because you choose to ignore them doesn't make them "conspiracy theories".

Or are you suggesting that the DOJ IG was "peddling" conspiracy theories when he wrote regarding the Crossfire Hurricane investigators:

It appeared that ... there was a pattern of assuming nefarious intent.

Franking, I think Horowitz was trying to be kind when he wrote that.

Two things -

It would have been political malpractice for the Clinton campaign not to point out the myriad relationships/meetings between Trump, his campaign and the Russians. Trump and 18 of his associates had at least 140 contacts with Russian nationals and WikiLeaks, or their intermediaries, during the 2016 campaign and presidential transition.

Second, one thing that has been demonstrably proven over the past 6-8 years is that it is never wrong to assume nefarious intent by Trump and his minions, particularly when Trump publicly solicited Russian help and enthusiastically accepted it while lying about a hotel project in Moscow, his campaign manager was actively working with Russian intelligence and Roger Stone was working with Wikileaks/Guccifer 2.0, among many other nefarious things, many of which led to criminal convictions.

Once again, two separate 4-year investigations of Hillary by DOJ (at Trump's behest) failed to discover any criminality, whereas Mueller found enough criminality to indict 34 people, primarily Trump staffers and Russians (thereby clearly demonstrating "nefarious intent"). Yet you continue to insist that Durham ran a righteous/meaningful investigation and Mueller didn't.

It'll be fun to see your how you excuse and rationalize the forthcoming indictments of Trump by Jack Smith and Fani Willis as well as the ongoing criminal proceedings in NYC pursued by Alvin Bragg. You sure to provide plenty of laughs.

[RickeyM]

Originally Posted by finnbow

Yet you continue to insist that Durham ran a righteous/meaningful investigation and Mueller didn't.

RE: My comment

You maintain Mueller didn't do what he could. You maintain the Durham investigation found what it didn't.

Straight out of the Reich-wing playbook.

Originally Posted by finnbow

It'll be fun to see your how you excuse and rationalize the forthcoming indictments of Trump by Jack Smith and Fani Willis as well as the ongoing criminal proceedings in NYC pursued by Alvin Bragg.

No it won't. Same old same old. Nothing we haven't heard before.

Originally Posted by finnbow

You sure to provide plenty of laughs.

An ongoing process for sure.