The indictment of Sussman is detailed and damning. It alleges that he hid the fact that he was working for the Clinton campaign in pushing the false Russian claim. ..https://t.co/jZQeISloC2
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) September 16, 2021
Below is my column in The Hill on recent reports of grand jury testimony in the Durham investigation. The implications of the grand jury — and the eventual report — have rattled folks in the Beltway this week . . . for good reason.
Here is the column:
This week Texas Rangers infielder Brock Holt became a baseball legend when he went to the mound and threw an “eephus,” a high-arching, off-speed pitch, in a game against the Athletics. It is believed to be the slowest pitch recorded in MLB history, and A’s batter Josh Harrison stood in disbelief as the 31 mph pitch was called a strike. Harrison just laughed in amazement.
Pirates outfielder Maurice Van Robays coined the term in the 1946 All-Star Game, explaining, “Eephus ain’t nothing, and that’s a nothing pitch.” But as Holt demonstrated, sometimes a “nothing” slow pitch can amount to a great deal.
That is equally true about the occasional criminal eephus that takes everyone by surprise. For example, U.S. Attorney John Durham’s investigation has been slow in coming, but on Friday, a report surfaced that he is pitching evidence to a grand jury in an investigation started back in May 2019. The Durham investigation is now longer in duration than former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, and many people long forgot that Durham — made a special counsel at the end of the Trump administration — was even still in the game.
The report in The Wall Street Journal said Durham is presenting evidence against FBI agents and possibly others in the use of false information or tips at the start of the Russia investigation in 2016. Those “others” could include a virtual who’s who of Washington politics, and even if they are not indicted, Durham could implicate some of the most powerful figures in politics in his final report, expected in the coming months.
Even for those of us who followed and wrote on the Russia investigation for five years, much has been revealed in the last year. It was disclosed in October, for instance, that President Obama was briefed by his CIA director, John Brennan, on July 28, 2016, on intelligence suggesting that Hillary Clinton planned to tie then-candidate Donald Trump to Russia as “a means of distracting the public from her use of a private email server.” The date was significant because the Russia investigation was initiated July 31, 2016, just three days later.
Throughout the campaign, the Clinton campaign denied any involvement in the creation of the so-called Steele dossier’s allegations of Trump-Russia connections. However, weeks after the election, journalists discovered that the Clinton campaign hid payments for the dossier made to a research firm, Fusion GPS, as “legal fees” among the $5.6 million paid to the campaign’s law firm. New York Times reporter Ken Vogel said at the time that Clinton lawyer Marc Elias, with the law firm of Perkins Coie, denied involvement in the anti-Trump dossier. When Vogel tried to report the story, he said, Elias “pushed back vigorously, saying ‘You (or your sources) are wrong.’” Times reporter Maggie Haberman declared, “Folks involved in funding this lied about it, and with sanctimony, for a year.”
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The indictment:
Replies
Unfortunately, I agree with you. It seems we have two justice systems in the US at the present time.
"IF"
Lynn Bryant DeSpain
Could of, should of, would of... Might indict...should have indicted, maybe will indict, ignores the MOUNTAINS of evidence pointing to the illegal use of FISA warrants to spy on the Trump Campaign... This new... not so new... revelation is just another bit of MSM hype to confuse and redirect the public's attention away from the very serious crimes committed... way beyond simply lying to FBI Agents or Federal Judges... and with the statute of limitations running out, all of the criminal conduct may be dismissed.
More political theater... a poorly scripted and contrived diversion from the main plot, how to steal an election, staring a host of esteemed characters... as they act out their roles in the theater of misdirection... in a DC production, with an all-star cast... whose criminal plot is to hide the key figures responsible for the illegal use of FISA warrants to spy on then-candidate Trump... together with the false affidavits of FBI agents, used to secure the FISA warrants, the list of crimes is nearly inexhaustible. In Short, this is just more Kabuki theater, going nowhere... in a hurry... another, grand 'eephus' in the Clinton Saga of high stakes corruption.
However, could of, should of, would of... or Might indict... has never indicted a single soul in the long history of mankind's jurisprudence.
P/S This theater of the macabre is now in its 190th week of production... and continues to amaze the audience with its seemingly unending list of offensive characters ... whose acting career is only exceeded by their political profession. So, well-choreographed that it is up for many a sequel ... in what appears to be a perpetual celebration of corruption in this continuum of DC life.
Twenty years after the District was established, a political class had taken up institutional residence, and has been there ever since. I doubt that it will ever be extinguished, since its dynamics are based in human natures' frailty. But fear of consequences can be re-established for the excesses committed in self-interest. It is their choice to throw caution to the winds. It is our choice how to respond to it.
.......and how should we respond to it?
The law has been bent for decades, the guilty walk without as much as a slap on the hand. It is one shocking dismissal of any guilt of the guilty after another, to the degree that we don't even bother to react to it anymore, we know the law applies differently to them than it does to the rest of us.
Look at the people still in jail from the January 6th incident......and this is happening in the USA, while those committing treason are going untouched in high positions.
We are living in communism and we don't even acknowledge it.
These investigations are a charade, they might put away a couple of people but they are always the no name ones, the real and powerful criminals always go unpunished, they remain rich and free. Our legal system is as corrupt as our political system, only they have the power to save the corrupt politicians.
Ya right you know this will go nowhere .
This will be a big fat nothingburger. I have lost all faith in justice ever happening.