Last night on The Five, the liberal panelist posed the argument, if these things in Durham's report are really true why have no additional charges been brought against anyone? As if she is not aware that this is how official Washington protects its own. When it's been decided that nothing is going to be done, that no one is going to be held accountable, a report is commissioned, a study group is formed, or hearings are held. That's the way it works. After a suitable period, there will be some blustering about changes to prevent this sort of thing from ever happening again, and then it all goes away.
In this case, it's been four years. Are there unexpired statutes of limitation? Unlikely. All the key players have moved on to gigs on cable news outlets, employment at think tanks or foundations, or simply a fully funded retirement. They are untouchable.
An Epoch Times article under the headline, Durham Report Reveals Massive Failures in FBI’s Investigation of Trump, states it perfectly:
The FBI didn’t interview the people connected to the information that the agency used to open a full investigation of the Trump campaign during the heat of the 2016 presidential election, according to the report by special counsel John Durham.
The bureau rushed to open the initial investigation based on unvetted intelligence from Australia, according to Durham, who has spent nearly three years investigating the origins of the FBI’s investigation of the Trump campaign.
The FBI’s rush to open the investigation and the shoddy evidence used as the premise for the probe were a departure from how the department treated other politically sensitive investigations in 2016, the report states. That includes the inquiry into the Clinton Foundation, which was virtually frozen in the leadup to Election Day in 2016.
The much-anticipated report (pdf), a copy of which The Epoch Times obtained ahead of its public release, also delves into other controversial aspects of Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI codename for the investigation of the Trump campaign.
“The objective facts show that the FBI’s handling of important aspects of the Crossfire Hurricane matter were seriously deficient,” the report states.
The special counsel further impugned the bureau’s error-ridden applications to surveil Trump campaign associate Carter Page. FBI agents applied to renew the secret-court warrants on Page despite admitting, both at the time and subsequently, that they had no probable cause to do so.
Durham concludes that the FBI failed to uphold its “important mission of strict fidelity to the law.”
The special counsel “does not recommend any wholesale changes in the guidelines and policies that the Department and the FBI now have in place.”
“The answer is not the creation of new rules but a renewed fidelity to the old,” the report reads.
There it is. Durham's recommendation comes down to, "Nothing to be done." How the Times can say there were "massive failures" is beyond me. The FBI successfully prevented Trump from fulfilling his most important campaign promise, that of draining The Swamp. Not only is The Swamp undrained, but it has become more powerful and more blatantly intrusive than ever before. Hardly what I would call a failure.
But what specifically have we found out?
Here is some from Techno Fog, The Reactionary:
Here are some of the main findings:
“The FBI discounted or willfully ignored material information that did not support the narrative of a collusive relationship between Trump and Russia.”
Crossfire Hurricane “was opened as a full investigation without [the FBI] ever having spoken to the persons who provided that information.” Days after it was opened, Peter Strzok was telling a London FBI employee that “there’s nothing to this.”
Internal FBI communications discussing the Crossfire Hurricane during its early stages: it’s “thin” and “it sucks”.
British Intelligence pushed back on Mueller requests for assistance: “[a British Intelligence person] basically said there was no [expletive] way in hell they were going to do it.”
Durham documents TWO investigations into Hillary Clinton - one involving the Clinton Foundation and one involving illegal foreign contributions to Clinton’s Campaign.
In one Clinton Campaign investigation, an FBI confidential human source (CHS) had offered an illegal foreign contribution to the campaign through an intermediary. The Clinton Campaign was “okay with it” and “were fully aware”. The CHS offered the FBI a copy of the credit card charge; the FBI never got receipts. In fact, the FBI handling agent told the CHS “to stay away from all events relating to Clinton’s campaign.”
Read more from Techno Fog here.
Mark Wauck, Meaning in History:
So that’s the big news after all these years—the Russia Hoax really was a hoax. As if anyone with an IQ above room temperature ever doubted it. Here’s Zerohedge’s summary of this not-so-stunning revelation:
According to Just the News, the report concludes that the FBI had no verified intelligence or evidence when it opened up an investigation into Donald Trump and his campaign in the summer of 2016.
Durham placed blame on the FBI and DOJ for failing to follow their own standards in a probe which should have never taken place - including the agency's surveillance of an American citizen without basis.
Let’s repeat that: The investigation should never have taken place simply because there was no reasonable basis for it. None. “No verified intelligence or evidence.” And this stuff was reviewed by the best legal minds the FBI and DoJ could come up with. Do you really think they were fooled into believing there was a reasonable basis? If you do, read the next two paragraphs.
"Based on the review of Crossfire Hurricane and related intelligence activities, we concluded the Department and the FBI failed to uphold their important mission of strict fidelity to the law in connection with certain events and activities described in this report," wrote Durham.
"The FBI personnel also repeatedly disregarded important requirements when they continued to seek renewals of that FISA surveillance while acknowledging -- both then and in hindsight -- that they did not genuinely believe there was probable cause to believe that the target [Carter Page] was knowingly engaged in clandestine intelligence activities on behalf of foreign power."
Let’s be totally clear about this. Durham’s bottom line conclusion was obvious from the very start—all the way back in the summer and fall of 2016. It almost makes me ill to think of the amount of time I spent beating this dead horse. It was always about “predication”—the requirement that investigative agencies of the federal government have some reasonable and articulable basis for believing that a criminal offense occurred before opening an investigation. That’s basic, and it’s the core issue before you even get to the probable cause requirements in FISA. I’m not going to go into this again. Anyone who wants to go over this again can just delve into past posts that I’ve pulled up by doing basic searches, like: predication, probable cause, FISA, Carter Page, Christopher Steele, and any other searches you care to come up with. How could it take years for Bull Durham to come to such an obvious conclusion? Yeah, I know …
Trust me on this—everyone involved knew it was complete bullshit from the very start, just like Durham says. Here’s a tell on that from Techno Fog. While the Deep State, led by the FBI and DoJ, was targeting Trump based on their hoax, what were they doing about known serious violations by Hillary?
Read more from Mark Wauck here.
Yes, we all knew that the Russia Hoax was truly a hoax. What we didn't know, was that Durham's purpose in investigating and producing his report was to prevent anything from ever being done about it. There was a time when some of us hoped and thought that somebody would be held accountable. We thought that somebody in The Swamp might pay a price for the obvious and deliberate conspiracy to swing our presidential election to Hillary. But that's not how Washington works.
If there are any changes coming out of this, they will be along the lines of recognizing a new reality. What was unthinkable before is now quite thinkable. Washington will define which government practices, weaponizations if you will, are now to be permitted. The hand slaps for things like falsifying FISA applications, or tampering with evidence might finally be dispensed with as we adjust to our new reality.
And don't think about voting them out. Keep in mind what Joseph Stalin is reputed to have said: “Those who vote decide nothing. Those who count the vote decide everything.” Didn't Mark Zuckerberg contribute $400 million-plus to "finance local elections?"
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