I used to do astrology charts in college and maybe I should consult what planets are forming oppositions the past couple of days, because in the last 48 hours the lot of the MAGA Cult has gone steeply downhill. Not only is Steve Bannon indicted, making him the first MAGA martyr, just as St. Stephen was the first Christian martyr, ironically, but the indictment forced Michael Flynn to come forward and say he’ll cooperate with the federal authorities. Flynn is one of the high priests of the Cult so if that’s his play, the other subpoenaed Trump acolytes will fall in line behind him and follow it. I am sure that there were moans and groans emanating from the households of Stephen Miller and Kayleigh McEnany, among others, Friday night.
That is more than enough disappointment for the Cult to contend with, but at least they could find comfort in the fact that John Durham’s investigation into Russia, Russia, Russia is about to vindicate their fearless leader, the Pumpkin Politico himself, Donald Trump. Wrong, wrong, and wrong, according to an op/ed by a conservative political analyst on the Fox News website.
There is a great deal of extravagant commentary in right-leaning media regarding Special Counsel John Durham’s probe into the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation. Trump supporters, in particular, are exuberant at the prospect that Durham, at long last, has cracked the case and is poised to prove a sweeping conspiracy between the Clinton campaign and Obama administration officials to undermine Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign and his presidency.
Those harboring this fantasy are going to be sorely disappointed.
And that’s coming from a conservative analyst. The piece then goes on to mention Durham’s two recent indictments, one against Democratic party lawyer Michael Sussmann in September and “Steele Dossier” source Igor Danchenko just last week. Those got the MAGA juices flowing, sadly for naught, as this analysis explains.
1. Durham has not charged that there was an overarching conspiracy to defraud the federal court, motivated by a desire to portray Trump as a clandestine agent of Russia. He has merely charged two people with lying to the FBI in investigative interviews.
2. The two defendants recently indicted, Sussmann and Danchenko, are not accused of lying about the substance of the sensational Steele dossier allegations. To the contrary, they are merely accused of lying about their sources. Sussmann, a former government cyber-security lawyer, is said to have misled the FBI by insisting that he did not represent any client in claiming that Trump was using a Russian financial institution, Alfa Bank, to conceal communications with the Kremlin. In reality, it is alleged, Sussmann was a lawyer for the Clinton campaign and for a tech excutive who was hoping for a job in the anticipated Hillary Clinton administration. Danchenko is accused of (a) concealing that some of his information came from a Clinton insider (not named in the indictment but identified in media reporting as Chuck Dolan), and of falsely claiming that some of his information came from a Trump insider (not named in the indictment but identified in media reporting as Sergey Millian).
3. That is, the charges against Sussmann and Danchenko do not rise or fall on whether the Steele dossier is complete fiction or the God’s-honest truth. It is irrelevant. Now, undoubtedly, Durham has concluded the dossier is nonsense – all of the people who once touted appear desperate to distance themselves from it; and Steele himself has described it as “raw” intelligence that needed to be investigated. But that said, Durham has not formally alleged that the dossier is false.
4. Even in Durham’s first indictment months ago, against FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith, he did not allege that the dossier was false. Rather, he accused Clinesmith of withholding a piece of information that was true – namely, that former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page had been an informant for the CIA.
The piece goes on in greater detail, but you are getting the flavor at this point, that there is no “there” there. Which is what has been said about the Durham investigation all along, that there’s nothing substantial to find so the best he can do is puff what little there is out as far as possible to look substantive.
This writer concludes massive incompetence on the part of the FBI, and that’s also debatable. One person’s version of gross incompetence is another person’s simple negligence, error or omission. But even then the conclusion is made, “incompetence, even tinged by malevolence, does not equate to criminal guilt.”
You recall Trump crying out last January, “where’s John Durham?” Where he’s always been, Donald, and the ludicrous investigation he launched is where it’s always been, which is going nowhere.
So for now Trump can forget about having the glorious victory he sought of being able to crow to the Cult that John Durham has conclusively proven the roots of the diabolical Obama/FBI/Clinton conspiracy against himself and his campaign. Which of course won’t stop him from bragging about it anyway as if that’s how it really went down.
This is a great disappointment although in no way an unexpected one. If Durham had had even a small leg to stand on, this would be leading every Fox Newscast for at least a couple of cycles. As it is, the topic dies a peaceful death in relative obscurity on the website. And another 2022, 2024 GOP talking point fades away.
And the Danchenko indictment ignores that the FBI already had that stuff.
So many things ae already common knowledge amongst the select committee … of this I’m sure … To get the shit to stick on the walls, requires many hours of elegant formatting, two versions … 1. Version written by tech writers who can make it easy for common citizens to read and understand the workings of rocket motor gimbal mountings that make it possible to land rocket boosters for re-use … 2. Version carefully written and proof-read several times by top of their class Legal Eagles, air tight list of specific charges, the criminal aspect and the closure of any loopholes … this vermin needs to not only be slapped with calls to court, but charges of actions against our democracy and criminal damages to the Capitol building and many injuries, some resulting in murder …
Two years in prison is Not Enough for these mental midgets, thinking the majority of these morans were complicit in supporting Trump, even as he totally mis-managed the Pandemic killing hundreds of thousands …
Too many slime-based actions to count, all to feed the raging needs of Trump himself …
Three comments. Wow. Hogwash doesn’t produce much circulation.
Sometimes it’s too easy…Perhaps before posting, and especially if want to claim the mantle of supremacy (for merely being white – so am I but while it’s gotten me privileges and advantages I otherwise wouldn’t have had during my six-plus decades my skin color in and of itself doesn’t make me superior or inferior to others of a different hue. Nor there’s to me/us) you should learn to count. You said you had three comments. Then went on to make only two. Color me less than impressed with your “supremacy.” Let me show you how this “three comments” thing is done: 1) You call yourself The White Supremacist because you apparently believe being white makes you superior to others. 2) Underneath that very thin white outer layer of skin everyone’s other physical parts are the same colors. 3) You suffer from delusions of grandeur
One. Two. Three statements. See how easy that was?
Oh, a final observation – if white skin makes a person so great and superior/supreme, why does your hero Trump who so many of you now consider the second coming of your Jeebbus go out of his way to paint himself ORANGE? One would think he’d go the Mary, Queen of Scots route with literal WHITE makeup!
Technically I believe the Holy Innocents preceded St. Stephen … which may be even more ironic.