Former President Donald Trump speaking at a rally in Wilks-Barre, Pa. on Sept 3, 2022 said a special prosecutor appointed during his administration would uncover “the crime of the century” a conspiracy to sink his 2016 campaign.
John Durham was tapped in 2019 by then-Attorney General Bill Barr to “investigate the investigators,” and look for government misconduct in the Trump-Russia probe.
Durham's first case, unveiled in August 2020, suggesting it would be the first of many. The prosecution resulted in a guilty plea from former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith, who was accused of altering an email in 2017 that investigators relied on to justify an application to wiretap former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. Clinesmith received 12 months of probation and 400 hours community service but kept his law license.
While special prosecutor Durham has tried two additional cases of lying to the FBI, in both cases the accused were found not guilty.
One of the defendants found not guilty is Michael Sussmann, a lawyer who worked at the outside law firm representing the Clinton campaign, and he faced a single count of lying to the FBI’s top lawyer in the run-up to the election in order to instigate a criminal investigation into Trump.
Kash Patel, a one-time investigator for former congressman Devin Nunes and later a senior Trump official and Board Member of Truth Social, claimed that the disclosure “shows that the Hillary Clinton campaign directly funded and ordered its lawyers … to orchestrate a criminal enterprise to fabricate a connection between President Trump and Russia.” His comments ignited a brief firestorm fueled by Fox News.
In fact, Durham came nowhere close to making this claim. Within days, Durham’s team filed an apology with the court in which they tried to distance themselves from “third parties or members of the media” that “have overstated, understated, or otherwise misinterpreted facts” alleged in the office’s filings.
So, while Fox News made some bucks off their usual rumor mongering, Trump via Durham got Dust Bunnies instead of proof of THE CRIME OF THE CENTURY.
John Durham was tapped in 2019 by then-Attorney General Bill Barr to “investigate the investigators,” and look for government misconduct in the Trump-Russia probe.
Durham's first case, unveiled in August 2020, suggesting it would be the first of many. The prosecution resulted in a guilty plea from former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith, who was accused of altering an email in 2017 that investigators relied on to justify an application to wiretap former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. Clinesmith received 12 months of probation and 400 hours community service but kept his law license.
While special prosecutor Durham has tried two additional cases of lying to the FBI, in both cases the accused were found not guilty.
One of the defendants found not guilty is Michael Sussmann, a lawyer who worked at the outside law firm representing the Clinton campaign, and he faced a single count of lying to the FBI’s top lawyer in the run-up to the election in order to instigate a criminal investigation into Trump.
Kash Patel, a one-time investigator for former congressman Devin Nunes and later a senior Trump official and Board Member of Truth Social, claimed that the disclosure “shows that the Hillary Clinton campaign directly funded and ordered its lawyers … to orchestrate a criminal enterprise to fabricate a connection between President Trump and Russia.” His comments ignited a brief firestorm fueled by Fox News.
In fact, Durham came nowhere close to making this claim. Within days, Durham’s team filed an apology with the court in which they tried to distance themselves from “third parties or members of the media” that “have overstated, understated, or otherwise misinterpreted facts” alleged in the office’s filings.
So, while Fox News made some bucks off their usual rumor mongering, Trump via Durham got Dust Bunnies instead of proof of THE CRIME OF THE CENTURY.
