(Photo
by
Chip
Somodevilla/Getty
Images)
“My
concern
about
my
reputation
is
with
the
people
who
I
respect,
and
my
family,
and
my
Lord.
And
I’m
perfectly
comfortable
with
my
reputation
with
them,
sir,”
former
special
counsel
John
Durham
huffed
this
morning
under
questioning
by
Rep.
Steve
Cohen,
a
Tennessee
Democrat.
Durham
was
appointed
by
Attorney
General
Bill
Barr
in
2019
to
investigate
the
origins
of
the
FBI’s
2016
Russia
inquiry
and
lock
up
all
the
Deep
State
evildoers
who
tried
to
frame
poor,
innocent
Donald
Trump.
Four
years
and
$6.5
million
of
taxpayer
money
later,
all
he
had
to
show
for
it
was
one
false
statements
plea
by
a
line
attorney,
whose
crime
was
ferreted
out
by
Inspector
General
Michael
Horowitz,
and
swift
acquittals
in
the
only
two
cases
he
brought
to
trial.
Durham
concluded
his
efforts
with
a
316-page
report
full
of
unsubstantiated
allegations
of
skullduggery
by
the
Clinton
campaign
and
FBI
bias,
but
without
making
any
substantive
recommendations
on
how
the
DOJ
should
change
its
policies.
In
an
attempt
to
squeeze
a
drop
or
two
of
political
juice
out
of
Durham’s
dud
of
an
investigation,
House
Judiciary
Chair
Jim
Jordan
invited
him
to
testify
publicly.
And
so
it
was
that
Durham
spent
this
morning
getting
ritually
pantsed
by
the
committee’s
Democrats,
who
pointed
out
over
and
over
again
that
he’d
failed
utterly
to
prove
his
point.
Here’s
Ranking
Member
Jerry
Nadler
reminding
Durham
that
he
spent
four
years
and,
unlike
Mueller,
whose
investigation
he
was
hired
to
undermine,
came
up
with
bupkiss.
Goofus
tries
and
fails
to
convict
Danchenko
and
Sussmann.
Gallant
secures
convictions
or
pleas
from
Manafort,
Gates,
Stone,
Flynn,
and
Papadopoulos.
Here’s
Rep.
Hank
Johnson
reminding
Durham
that
actually
what
counts
is
not
the
grand
jury
indictments
but
the
trial
jury’s
acquittals.
But
Durham’s
encounter
with
Rep.
Adam
Schiff,
himself
a
former
prosecutor,
really
seemed
to
tweak
his
mustache.
Just
to
be
clear,
Durham’s
big
reveal
was
that,
in
his
opinion,
the
Crossfire
Hurricane
investigation
should
have
been
opened
as
a
pre-investigation,
or
a
baby
investigation,
or
maybe
a
mild
query.
He
pooh
poohs
the
fact
that
it
was
opened
after
Trump
campaign
aide
George
Papadopoulos
bragged
to
Australian
diplomat
Alexander
Downer
that
the
Russians
were
going
to
help
Trump’s
campaign
by
releasing
hacked
information
about
Hillary
Clinton.
Which
they
then
did.
In
this
exchange,
Durham
purports
to
be
unsure
whether
this
actually
happened,
despite
the
ample
evidence
laid
out
in
the
Mueller
Report
and
findings
by
the
Senate
Intelligence
Committee
confirming
just
that.
And
in
a
bonus
round,
Rep.
Eric
Swalwell
commends
Durham
for
refusing
to
“join
the
law
firm
of
Insurrection
LLC,
which
is
incidentally
and
probably
appropriately
chaired
by
a
guy
who
never
passed
the
bar
exam.”
This
would
appear
to
be
a
reference
to
Jim
Jordan,
who
graduated
from
law
school,
but
never
did
sit
for
the
bar.
Jordan
paid
Swalwell
back
by
refusing
to
strike
from
the
record
a
false
allegation
that
Swalwell
had
an
affair
with
a
Chinese
spy.
This
afternoon,
the
fun
continues.
Perhaps
Matt
Gaetz
(who
did
pass
the
bar!)
will
be
able
to
salvage
this
shitshow
when
it’s
his
turn
to
question
the
witness.
Or
…
maybe
not.
Liz
Dye lives
in
Baltimore
where
she
writes
about
law
and
politics
and
appears
on
the Opening
Arguments podcast.
