At a recent public hearing of the House Judiciary Committee, it became incredibly apparent that a number of Republicans aligned with Donald Trump actually aren’t big fans of John Durham anymore.
Durham was the prosecutor tasked in the Trump era and beyond with investigating the origins of the Russia investigation, and his record was dismal. Durham’s probe produced three cases… two of which ended in acquittals at trial, with the third culminating in a plea deal after investigative work largely done by another authority, the Justice Department’s inspector general.
“We’re disappointed too, but the difference is, when regular folks do things that are wrong and unlawful, there’s typically greater effort to try to get those people before a grand jury, to utilize criminal process — where appropriate, not for other purposes,” Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) opined to Durham, perhaps with his own extensively publicized run-ins with federal investigators in mind.
The Florida Republican then grilled Durham about what attempts were made to get in touch with an individual involved with George Papadopoulos, an ex-Trump aide whose blabbing is understood to be a key basis for starting the Russia investigation. The idea must be that there was some potential that person was corruptly setting George up, or something.
Gaetz then asked Durham about allegations that investigators working with Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who handled the federal government’s Russia investigation, had wiped their phones. Gaetz accused Durham of being “part of the cover-up.” “Yeah, well if that’s your thought, there’s no way of dissuading you from that,” Durham replied. “I can tell you that it’s offensive, and that the people who worked on this investigation have spent their lives trying to protect the people in this country and pursue, within the law.”
By the end, Gaetz was actually yelling over Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who was trying to maintain order after Matt’s allotted time for questioning was up. Even Trump is probably let down by Durham, as Donald himself has widely promoted the work Durham was doing as supposedly setting him up for exoneration. Watch Gaetz’s anger below:
