During a hearing on Wednesday of the House Judiciary Committee, members heard from John Durham.
Durham is the former special counsel who led a years-long investigation into the origins of the Russia investigation, meaning the Justice Department wing of the attempts to uncover the truth about any ties between the Trump campaign and Russia, which was concurrent to an investigation into some of the at least related facts of attempted Russian interference in 2016.
During a portion of his questioning of Durham, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) pointed out some serious and established problems with documented behavior by the Trump campaign, a coalition even including the former president’s son, Donald Trump, Jr. After establishing some of the other general facts, Schiff turned to a meeting that Trump Jr. infamously had with a woman named Natalia Veselnitskaya at a Trump property in New York. Trump Jr. and associates of his took that meeting after a promise was dangled of incriminating information on Hillary Clinton, though nothing much on that front actually came up in the gathering with Veselnitskaya.
At first, Durham tried to perceptibly dismiss the significance of what went on, describing the outreach that had made its way to Donald Trump, Jr. as essentially to be expected. “And you think it’s insignificant that he had a secret meeting with a Russian delegation for the purpose of getting dirt on Hillary Clinton and that the only disappointment expressed in that meeting was that the dirt they got wasn’t better — you don’t think that’s significant?” Schiff asked, clearly frustrated. Durham eventually replied: “If you’re asking me would I do it, I hope I wouldn’t do it, but it was not illegal. It was stupid, foolish, ill-advised.” What a remarkably weak answer.
“Well, it is illegal to conspire to get incriminating opposition research from a hostile government that is of financial value to a campaign — wouldn’t that violate campaign laws?” Schiff continued. Durham predictably demurred. Elsewhere, it also came up during the hearing how Durham brought two cases to trial… both of which failed, and overall, he at no point proved any conspiracy to target Trump or the Trump campaign in the Russia investigation that federal authorities conducted.
Check out Schiff’s interactions below:
Schiff: The son of a presidential candidate gets calls all the time from a foreign government offering dirt on their opponent, is that what you are saying? pic.twitter.com/1R7nH8xfmC
— Acyn (@Acyn) June 21, 2023
