Durham Report drops; DOJ fires IRS team investigating Hunter
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DURHAM REPORT COVERAGE
Durham Report drops; DOJ fires IRS team investigating Hunter
By Mike Huckabee
If you’ve been reading my newsletter the past few years, you already know essentially what Special Counsel John Durham revealed in his 306-page missive released Monday. Not that you’ve necessarily read it all --- you didn’t have to. It’s taken years to finally come full circle, to conclude what you and I always knew, that the whole thing was a spectacular hoax from the start. A hoax and an attempted coup, started by Hillary’s campaign.
When that coup failed in 2016 and Trump won, they continued the hoax into his presidency, hog-tying him with phony investigations that made it impossible for him to fire people without being charged with “obstruction” and impeached. They secured their positions by preventing him from cleaning house. That’s one reason why The Swamp is still The Swamp.
There are hardly words to express how odious this is without resorting to unprintable ones, but we’re giving it a try. Here are some others…
https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/odious
First, though, some additional breaking news: In a stunning move, the IRS has benched the entire group of investigators who had been looking into Hunter Biden’s financial affairs, along with the IRS criminal supervisory agent who came forward in April to blow the whistle on the DOJ for improperly impeding the investigation of the President’s son. The IRS’s reaction to this allegation is to improperly impede the investigation of the President’s son even more.
According to the NEW YORK POST, “the purge allegedly was done on orders from the Justice Department.” Surprise, surprise. The POST learned this from a letter written by the whistleblower’s attorneys, Mark Lyttle and newcomer Tristan Leavitt, to congressional leaders. The attorneys characterize this move as retaliatory, though IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel told Congress under oath that there would be no retaliation to whistleblowers.
“We respectfully request that you give this matter your prompt attention,” the attorneys wrote. “Removing the experienced investigators who have worked this case for years and are now the subject-matter experts is exactly the sort of issue our client intended to blow the whistle on to begin with.” In other words, the higher-ups are inadvertently proving the whistleblower’s point.
Depending on what the investigative team found and how much more there might be, this might be much more than retaliation. Let’s just say it has the “classic earmarks” (ha) of a Watergate-style cover-up, with a Biden-appointed AG firing the whole team investigating the Biden family enterprise.
It’s interesting, strategy-wise, that this move came just as Durham released his looooong-awaited conclusions. Nick Arama at REDSTATE includes a link to the full report, as well as an informative Twitter thread from TechnoFog.
From Durham’s report: “Neither the U.S. nor the Intelligence Community appears to have possessed ANY [emphasis ours] actual evidence of collusion in their holdings at the commencement of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation...[nothing] indicating that at any time during the campaign anyone in the Trump [campaign] had been in contact with any Russian intelligence officials.” The Crossfire Hurricane investigators “did not and could not” verify any substantive allegations in the so-called Steele dossier.
TechnoFog points out how differently the Clinton campaign was treated: “According to an FBI CHS [confidential source] in early 2016, the Clinton campaign was ‘fully aware’ of and ‘okay with’ a foreign contribution in violation of federal law. The FBI agent didn’t get receipts --- and asked the source to stay away from the Clinton Campaign.”
Also, from Greg Price: “According to the Durham Report, the plan by Hillary Clinton to create a false story linking Donald Trump to Russia was briefed in August of 2016 by CIA Director John Brennan to President Obama, VP Biden, AG Loretta Lynch, and FBI Director Comey.” So, they all knew it was fake political garbage, a dirty smear job on Trump. And that includes the man currently in the White House, a thoroughly dishonest man who got where he is by blatantly lying again and again. Obama knew it, too, so he lied by omission.
“What’s criminal is that it appears people might get away with it,” Arama said. And they likely will. Most media will do what they can to make it go away. AP has already attacked Durham for his “spotty prosecution record” and said that his report “fell short of Trump’s prediction he would uncover ‘the crime of the century.’” But you know what? For the damage it did to our country, it arguably IS the crime of the century.
The WASHINGTON EXAMINER story has additional details, saying House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan says his office has contacted Durham’s office to have him testify next week. The big question we have for him: Why in blazes did you decide against making criminal referrals??
The FBI issued a statement saying it has initiated “dozens of corrective actions” to reform what they call “missteps.” Sorry, these weren’t mere missteps, and that won’t be enough. Look at what just happened with the Hunter team at the IRS.
President Trump responded to Durham’s report on Truth Social, saying the American public had been “scammed” by people trying to undermine the United States. “They are scum, like cockroaches all over Washington DC,” he said of the hoaxers, while congratulating Durham for his professionalism and quality work.
https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/
Ron DeSantis set political rivalry aside and agreed that the report “confirmed what we already knew.” He said, “It reminds us of the need to clean house at these agencies, as they’ve never been held accountable for this egregious abuse of power.” Surely, he knows that if he does win the GOP nomination, he’ll be treated as a Trump proxy by the deep state, and there’s no telling what scheme they’ll come up with in 2024. Without accountability --- and I’m every bit as angry about that as the angriest among you --- they might even be emboldened.
Former Acting FBI Director Andy McCabe --- now, appropriately, a CNN contributor --- completely dismissed the report and claimed Durham’s investigation was “never legitimate.” Just wondering: how do you say there’s nothing new and also that you’ve only read portions here and there?
McCabe used the story about Russians hacking DNC computers --- a theory for which even the computer experts at CrowdStrike concluded there was no actual evidence --- to insist there really was Russian collusion. He disputed Durham’s characterization of their data as “raw, unanalyzed and uncorroborated.” He said Durham was on “a political errand” and that the assertion that the Trump and Clinton campaigns were treated differently is “a ridiculous claim.”
Just be glad that McCabe is far away from the FBI now and that with CNN’s dwindling ratings, few people will be hearing anything he has to say. Here’s a link to his interview with Anderson Cooper, but get ready for the gaslighting of a lifetime…
Jake Tapper, also at CNN, was willing to acknowledge that Durham’s findings are devastating to the FBI and exonerate Trump “to a degree.” He didn’t say what degree he had judged that to be.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/justice/jake-tapper-durham-report-exonerates-trump
By the way, to what “degree” does CNN owe Trump and his people an apology for their years of rabid anti-Trump “Russian collusion” propaganda masquerading as news?
Tristan Justice at THE FEDERALIST focused on the media and how their reports were poisoned by the concocted “collusion” story. Recall that THE NEW YORK TIMES and the WASHINGTON POST won a Pulitzer for their fake reporting on this fakery. (NYT and WAPO should give it back and apologize to Trump and to the nation for their role in perpetuating a lie, but they won’t. The Times must keep theirs on the same shelf as Walter Duranty’s Pulitzer for repeating Stalin’s lies to cover up his planned famines.) FBI records show that what they were reporting in February and March of 2017 about Trump campaign officials being in touch with Russian intelligence officers was not true.
So, who gets held accountable? If no one goes to jail after falsely swearing, for example, that information presented to FISA courts was verified --- well, that is not justice. Hillary, the mastermind of the “bloodless coup” that this was, and her flying monkeys all skate. They are criminals who tried first to manipulate an election and later to take down a President.
If the Democrats are really looking for “insurrectionists” who are a direct threat to “our democracy,” well, there they are!
The people we should be able to trust to enforce our laws evenly and with no regard for politics have failed us miserably and will fail us again if there are no consequences.
The Durham Report “oughta scare the living hell out of everyone,” said a subdued California Rep. Devin Nunes, former chairman of the House Intel Committee. “...They’ve gotten away with everything from 2016 to today...We’re dealing with a very corrupt FBI and Department of Justice at this point.” This interview is a must-watch.
To conclude, former Acting U.S. Attorney General Matt Whitaker appeared early Tuesday on “FOX & Friends” to say, “We should all be outraged by this.” Like us, he doesn’t believe the FBI has taken the “corrective actions” that will prevent this from happening again. “I think you put the wrong people in the wrong spots, and this could happen all over again.” Excellent interview with Brian Kilmeade; if it’s posted later today, we’ll share the link.
Durham delivers his final report
By Colonel Kenneth Allard
Unless you’re a news junkie, you may have forgotten what Counsel John Durham was supposed to be investigating. Back before Covid exploded, it seemed as if the valiant prosecutor was charged with investigating how that Trump-Russian collusion thing got started. Had that whole mess begun with shenanigans by the FBI and, who knows, maybe even the intelligence community? Republican die-hards and other perpetual optimists even hoped that Durham’s uncovering of Democratic wrong-doing during and after 2016 might even influence the election of 2020.
Mr. Durham’s report was published yesterday. Not surprisingly, no individual malefactors were indicted, Democratic malfeasance was once again documented while Republicans were typically relegated to history’s sidelines. Again. Why do Republicans so often seem to “win” historical or legal arguments on scholarly merit while perpetually losing elections? Part of the reason is of course that the media likes it that way, particularly when its agents have been complicit on any matter having to do with Republicans, especially when named Donald Trump.
Even while occupied trying to survive Covid, it is not difficult to recall the media crescendos blaring the names the names of James Comey, Robert Mueller or Peter Strzok on every broadcast. How soon, they thundered, before these new Inspectors Javert would uncover the evidence proving the case against Donald Trump? Today’s headlines in The Guardian were considerably more reserved, “FBI accused of failures but key report finds no deep-state plot against Trump.” Like their brethren elsewhere in the Fifth Estate, Guardian authors opined that “Durham’s inquiry had failed to find any blockbuster revelations” even though the report concluded that the FBI had “failed to uphold the mission of strict fidelity.” https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/may/15/fbi-durham-report-trump-russia-investigation
In ten years as a military analyst with NBC News, I developed an immunity to “media spin.” Having been both an operational special agent (Army Intelligence) and a West Point professor, I was especially appalled to read the following passage from Mr. Durham’s report: “…there is a continuing need for the FBI and the Department to recognize that lack of analytical rigor, apparent confirmation bias, and an over-willingness to rely on information from individuals connected to political opponents caused investigators to fail to adequately consider alternative hypotheses and to act without appropriate objectivity or restraint in pursuing allegations of collusion or conspiracy…Although recognizing that in hindsight much is clearer, much of this also seems to have been clear at the time. https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/15/politics/read-durham-report/index.html (p.28)
Are you kidding? When you lack analytical rigor, display confirmation bias and fail to consider competing analytical hypotheses, then you have no right to consider yourself any more as an “investigator.” Instead, you have become an ideologue strictly limiting one’s self to carrying out whatever agenda has been assigned to that respective agency; truth, or the lack of it, is no longer your concern. Or as Felix Dzherzinsky, chief of the Soviet Secret Services, put it so memorably, “Show me the man and I will show you the crime.”
Somehow the passage of four years now seems to give the Durham Report an extra punch. If our version of the secret police was that bad four years ago, why should we assume they have improved in the interim? In particular, should we believe the Bureau’s quick explanation today that those troublesome issues have already been corrected? “Had those reforms been in place in 2016, the missteps identified in the report could have been prevented. This report reinforces the importance of ensuring the FBI continues to do its work with the rigor, objectivity, and professionalism the American people deserve and rightly expect.” https://www.npr.org/2023/05/15/1176219884/trump-russia-investigation-durham
Yadda-yadda-yadda. What really matters is that the Republicans have been given an information edge that needs to be transformed into a winning margin, from now all the way up to 2024. I agree with the far-sighted vision of Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who thinks that Michelle Obama may be planning a presidential run, if and when Joe Biden stumbles – or maybe even if he does not. But even if Ms. Obama chooses to remain a private citizen, there is a lot to learn about how the collusion scandal began, the cool smoothness with which the FBI and the CIA suddenly switched on and began to target the incoming Trump administration. Who gave those orders and switched on the long tentacles of the deep state?
THIS may raise your blood pressure
By Mike Huckabee
I warn you that this may raise your blood pressure to dangerous levels. But here’s how the anti-Trump talking heads at MSNBC reacted to being told in the Durham Report that they’ve spent years promoting a big, fat, insidious hoax. Let’s simply say that “Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt.”
Most jaw-dropping response: trying to dismiss Durham’s report as a “rabbit hole conspiracy.” No, that would be your “reporting” since 2016. In fairness, I’m sure it’s difficult to see clearly, considering how little light there must be down in your own deep, deep rabbit hole.
Great Point
Law professor Jonathan Turley and others say that with the media trying to discredit Durham’s findings that there was no evidence of Trump-Russia collusion behind the FBI’s insurrectionist campaign against President Trump, now would be a great time for Rep. Adam Schiff to show us all that alleged “ample evidence” he claimed to have of said collusion.
Or is that exactly what I’ve always predicted it would be: the equivalent of a 1950s politician waving around a blank sheet of paper and claiming it’s a list of Russian spies in the government? It’s ironic how many movies Hollywood has made condemning that era, and then given themselves awards for them, yet voters in that very town actually sent Schiff to Congress and keep reelecting him.
I can’t wait for all the movies about what a treasonous liar Adam Schiff is. I’m sure they’ll arrive right after the movies condemning the unconstitutional blacklist of oppressed conservatives in Hollywood.
IN OTHER NEWS
Daniel Penny update
An attorney for Daniel Penny, the Marine veteran charged with second degree manslaughter in the death of Jordan Neely on a New York subway, spoke to Fox News’ Judge Jeanine Pirro on Monday.
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/leahbarkoukis/2023/05/16/daniel-penny-attorney-speaks-out-n2623305
The attorney said that none of the accusations about Penny being a murderer, vigilante or racist are based on facts. He said Neely was acting in an erratic manner, screaming, flailing his arms and threatening passengers, and Penny put his life at risk to subdue Neely to protect all the people on the train, black, brown and white. He also said he didn’t put Neely in a choke hold, and took care to hold him in a way where he could breathe.
Activists are also claiming that Neely was just a poor, benign Michael Jackson impersonator, and that his record of 42 arrests were just petty charges because he was homeless. But the New York Post dug into his record and found some very disturbing charges, like attempted kidnapping after he allegedly dragged a 7-year-old girl down the street, and punching a female stranger in the face as she exited a subway, breaking her nose and fracturing her eye socket. And they wonder why people might have been frightened of being in a subway car with him. Of course, none of these serious charges resulted in serious consequences.
Jordan Neely certainly didn’t deserve to die, but Daniel Penny obviously didn’t mean to kill him. It appears that he did what he believed he had to do to protect innocent lives, like any Marine would. The key fact is that if Neely had been in jail or in a mental hospital instead of being released 42 times, he wouldn’t have been threatening people on a subway and he would be alive today.
So I will once again point out the obvious: if manslaughter means you are responsible for someone’s death whether you directly planned it or not, then DA Alvin Bragg needs to release Daniel Penny and charge himself with manslaughter.