Former President Donald Trump’s loyalist supporters are celebrating the release of the Durham report, which concluded that the FBI should not have launched an investigation into connections between Donald Trump and Russia during the 2016 campaign. The report - over 300 pages - took over 3 years to complete and cost millions of dollars.
Trump supporters are pointing fingers and shouting “I told you so” because they believed Donald Trump’s campaign would never have done anything illegal.
Politics is an ugly business, and in 2016 Republicans were looking for anything they could find to indict Hillary Clinton. Democrats were looking for anything they could find to indict Donald Trump.
A few facts: Special counsel John Durham was appointed by Trump’s Attorney General William Barr. Durham was viewed as a nonpartisan person who would conduct a fair investigation into whether links could be established between the Trump Campaign and Russia.
We know that Russia did interfere in the 2016 presidential election - but there’s only speculation as to whether the interference had anything to do with the results of Trump winning the election. The Mueller report concluded that Russia did interfere in the 2016 election - but the final report “did not establish that members of Trump’s campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.”
The Durham report was focused on the possible connections between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. The conclusion of the newly-released Durham report concludes that the FBI should not have conducted an investigation into the connection between the Trump campaign and Russia.
However, much to the disappointment of many Republicans, the Durham report does not recommend any criminal charges. John Durham did bring criminal charges against 3 individuals - he lost 2 cases in court and a third pleaded guilty to altering an email but served no prison time.
It is understandable that right-wing media, especially right-wing social media, would rejoice in the findings, but John Durham was appointed by AG William Barr - at a time when Barr was a staunch supporter and a hard-core conductor of the Trump administration’s policies.
When Barr was AG - there was controversy over the idea that the Department of Justice was not an independent body working for the people of the United States - but was actually supporting whatever President Trump wanted to do.
The Durham Report yielded no criminal convictions and included Durham’s observation that the law “does not always make a person’s bad judgment, even horribly bad judgment, standing alone, a crime.” Appearing to reference the countless right-wing attacks and accusations about Hillary Clinton during the 2016 campaign, Durham concluded that the law does not prohibit all unethical conduct that political campaigns use for their “tactical advantage.”
In what should be a highlight of the report, Durham calls for changes in the way the DOJ and the FBI conduct investigations.
For the record - I never said that Donald Trump worked with the Russians to win the election. I didn’t talk much about the investigation other than to say that there seemed to be enough evidence to investigate and that, considering the evidence that was discovered during the investigation into Russia’s efforts to see Trump elected, there was reason for an investigation. But the politically-motivated and sloppy manner in which the investigation was apparently conducted is an embarrassment.
The Republicans who said all along that “Trump did nothing wrong,” were basing their conviction on what information they received from their chosen media sources. These were no individuals who did their own investigations gathering concrete evidence to support their belief that Donald Trump did nothing wrong - but it turns out they were right about the Trump campaign not working in concert with the Russian government. There should be little doubt that the Trump campaign was not opposed to Russian doing all they could to help in the election of Trump.
Once again - we have a report with a conclusion that gives both sides a reason to celebrate - but in reality we should all remember that politics has deep roots that disregard the truth. It is the responsibility of each individual American to search beyond the biased headlines and summaries from both the right and the left. That’s a challenge since it is easier to follow what your chosen leaders say over actually thinking for yourself.
