The widely touted investigation led by federal prosecutor John Durham into the origins of the Russia investigation has proven to be a “bust,” as one former federal prosecutor put it on CNN in a moment highlighted by Raw Story.
Durham’s final report was produced — and contained no recommendations for additional criminal charges, meaning judicially verifiable proof of some kind of intentional conspiracy to target Trump in opening the Russia investigation (at least the Justice Department’s iteration of it) just hasn’t materialized, even according to assessments from within Trump’s own circles. Durham argued the full investigation that looked into connections between the Trump campaign in 2016 and Russian interests shouldn’t have been opened… and it seems that was nearly it, beyond some cosmetic policy changes and a suggestion for adding a new level of debate to the process of obtaining warrants under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Several years of work, and it roughly boils down to what Trump’s been saying online and in speeches for years? How unoriginal.
“In terms of criminal prosecutions, this case was an outright bust,” ex-prosecutor Elie Honig argued during a recent CNN discussion. “It has been going on for four years. And here is the bottom-line tally. Two people indicted, went to trial, found not guilty. Wrongly charged, acquitted, and cleared by a jury. A third person pled guilty and was sentenced to probation. No time in jail. So, any way you look at this, from a prosecutorial lens, it was a failure and a suboptimal use, I’ll say, of four years’ worth of resources.”
None of those details mean, though, Trump and his allies won’t be declaring victory anyway. Apparently, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who is leading the House Judiciary Committee in this Congress, is angling to hear testimony from Durham in the near future. Watch Honig’s discussion below:
