What Did Durham Uncover in His Investigation?

             My VIP for this week is Special Counsel John Durham, the man that is investigating Russiagate – otherwise known as the investigation hoax about Donald Trump. Officially, Durham opened a criminal trial for Igor Danchenko last week. However, he is actually trying the FBI, the Department of Justice, and the Mueller investigation.

            The case against Danchenko is based on his lies to the FBI about his relationship with both Sergei Millian and Charles Dolan. According to Jack Cashill, Durham’s co-counsel Michael Keilty opened by saying that “the FBI should have uncovered but never did.” This is why the trial is about the FBI, the DOJ, and the Mueller investigation rather than Danchenko. 

“The evidence in this trial will show that the Steele dossier would cause the FBI to engage in troubling conduct that would ultimately result in the extended surveillance of the United States Citizens,” said Keilty. That conduct, the trial revealed, included offering Christopher Steele what amounted to a million-dollar bribe to corroborate his infamous dossier, paying Danchenko to be a confidential human source (CHS) after he proved to be a serial liar, and basing a multi-year persecution of President Trump on information the FBI had every reason to believe was bunk.

The attempted bribe, revealed on Day One of the trial, should have stopped the presses. Specifically, Durham asked FBI supervisor Brian Auten what the FBI offered Steele for “corroborative information.” Said Auten, “Mr. Steele was offered anywhere up to a million dollars for any information, documentary, physical evidence, anything of that sort which could help to prove the allegations.”

This offer reeks of desperation. The FBI made it in early October 2016, two weeks before it filed its first FISA application against American businessman Carter Page. As Auten admitted, Steele did not and could not provide “anything.” Ever. Yet without any corroboration, the FBI went ahead and filed not just one but four FISA applications against Page with the unproven Steele information as its foundation – a clear violation of FISA law.

            Cashill continued his explanation for why the trial is not just about Danchenko and his crimes but also about the corruption in the FBI, the DOJ, and the Mueller investigation. He explained that the word “hoax” is not the correct one to describe the Russia Russia Russia investigation. “As Durham proved, the FBI and the DOJ turned a willfully blind eye to the dirtiest trick in the nation’s political history,” and it was covered up by the dishonest media.