Durham investigation (Update: Sussman acquitted) (2 Viewers)

[SaintForLife]

It looks like the first shoe has dropped with the Durham investigation with the Clinesmith plea deal. Clinesmith wasn't a low level FBI employee involved in the Crossfire Hurricane investigation.

He worked with Strzok to arrange sending an FBI agent into Trump-Flynn briefing, was on the Mueller team, he took part in the Papadopoulos interviews, and he participated in the FISA process.



From the NYT article:

Ex-F.B.I. Lawyer Expected to Plead Guilty in Review of Russia Inquiry (Published 2020)

Prosecutors did not reveal any evidence of the kind of broad anti-Trump conspiracy among law enforcement officials that the president has long alleged.

www.nytimes.com

I wonder who else knew about the lies?

 

[BayouSAINTJoe]

IMO this is a thinly veiled GOP impeachment trap for the incoming Biden administration...if Biden were to fire the SC or ignore any requests, look for no one other than Devin Nunes and Matt Farts to try and lead an "impeachment inquiry"

Edit: I meant Matt Gaetz but autocorrect changed it to Farts...no complaints here.

 

[MT15]

Biden isn’t going to fall for it, though. IMO.

 

[DJ1BigTymer]

Biden isn’t going to fall for it, though. IMO.

No, he will not. He'll see it for the stupid toilet humor that it is and ignore.

 

[BayouSAINTJoe]

Biden isn’t going to fall for it, though. IMO.

No, he will not. He'll see it for the stupid toilet humor that it is and ignore.

It'll be pretty hard to ignore...they're going to "leak" "damning" (false) details to Fox News on a weekly basis. Don't expect this sham SC to work quietly in the background..this'll be like a rock band rehearsing in a library.

 

[superchuck500]

It'll be pretty hard to ignore...they're going to "leak" "damning" (false) details to Fox News on a weekly basis. Don't expect this sham SC to work quietly in the background..this'll be like a rock band rehearsing in a library.

Special Counsel still work for the Attorney General. Attempting to influence substantive findings or to otherwise threaten the SC is fundamentally inappropriate - and Biden knows that. It's just another example of where Trump's behavior really was a substantial departure from law, institution, and custom. He's the deviant, others aren't just going to follow suit because he did it.

But if the SC is conducting an unprofessional investigation, the AG can demand better controls. But I don't recall many leaks from Durham's other investigation and he's a longtime DOJ prosecutor. Leaks in a criminal investigation are big problems because they can butt area the evidence and the jury pool. Leaks can get evidence tossed from a case. People were surprised that Mueller's team had so few leaks - but it shouldn't be surprising, they're seasoned investigators and prosecutors. Political investigations and criminal investigations are two entirely different animals.

 

[DaveXA]

Special Counsel still work for the Attorney General. Attempting to influence substantive findings or to otherwise threaten the SC is fundamentally inappropriate - and Biden knows that. It's just another example of where Trump's behavior really was a substantial departure from law, institution, and custom. He's the deviant, others aren't just going to follow suit because he did it.

But if the SC is conducting an unprofessional investigation, the AG can demand better controls. But I don't recall many leaks from Durham's other investigation and he's a longtime DOJ prosecutor. Leaks in a criminal investigation are big problems because they can butt area the evidence and the jury pool. Leaks can get evidence tossed from a case. People were surprised that Mueller's team had so few leaks - but it shouldn't be surprising, they're seasoned investigators and prosecutors. Political investigations and criminal investigations are two entirely different animals.

What legal terminology is "butt area the evidence"? That's a new one for me.

 

[superchuck500]

What legal terminology is "butt area the evidence"? That's a new one for me.

It’s a term of art.

 

[superchuck500]

I’m not gonna edit it. I’m going to leave it there for posterior. I mean posterity.

 

[JRad]

Matt Farts

butt area the evidence

I’m going to leave it there for posterior.

I’m not mature enough for this thread anymore

 

[GrandAdmiral]

Special Counsel still work for the Attorney General. Attempting to influence substantive findings or to otherwise threaten the SC is fundamentally inappropriate - and Biden knows that. It's just another example of where Trump's behavior really was a substantial departure from law, institution, and custom. He's the deviant, others aren't just going to follow suit because he did it.

But if the SC is conducting an unprofessional investigation, the AG can demand better controls. But I don't recall many leaks from Durham's other investigation and he's a longtime DOJ prosecutor. Leaks in a criminal investigation are big problems because they can butt area the evidence and the jury pool. Leaks can get evidence tossed from a case. People were surprised that Mueller's team had so few leaks - but it shouldn't be surprising, they're seasoned investigators and prosecutors. Political investigations and criminal investigations are two entirely different animals.

Was listening to CNN last night and they were interviewing Preet about the move. The premise of it was that it's a political move, of course, and Barr's main goal was to make it difficult for Biden to replace Durham as an USA.

Preet, however, doesn't think it'll fly. He mentioned there's some federal rule (can't remember if he said it was in the regs or department rules) that mandates that special counsels cannot be active members of the DOJ (a la Starr and Mueller), which Durham is.

It'll be interesting to see what comes of this.

 

[superchuck500]

Was listening to CNN last night and they were interviewing Preet about the move. The premise of it was that it's a political move, of course, and Barr's main goal was to make it difficult for Biden to replace Durham as an USA.

Preet, however, doesn't think it'll fly. He mentioned there's some federal rule (can't remember if he said it was in the regs or department rules) that mandates that special counsels cannot be active members of the DOJ (a la Starr and Mueller), which Durham is.

It'll be interesting to see what comes of this.

I think the SC regs require that the SC be from outside the federal government. But apparently there's precedent for an AG to appoint a "special counsel" to conduct an investigation that is made by other authorities and not pursuant to the SC regulations. If that's something the AG can do, I would think that also means that other parameters (and protections for the SC and the investigation) are not applicable.

John Durham is a career DOJ professional. He's been with DOJ since 1982 and only became a "political appointee" in 2018 when he was confirmed as the US Attorney for the District of Connecticut. He was an unconfirmed acting US Attorney for a time under both Clinton and Obama. He's served in many capacities at DOJ.

I don't think he's a partisan pol. It's unfortunate that he's become so wrapped up in Trump conspiracy land that he's now viewed that way. I think absent that, he would have remained within DOJ (perhaps even as US Attorney) after January. Now, who knows.

 

[always4su]

Four years of trump has left me a cynic. I don't trust either of them in the least. Barr didn't have to give his interview - he volunteered it to the AP. Right afterward, he met with trump for three hours. I think these two butt-brothers are cooking something maniacal up. Have Barr look like what he is absolutely not - non-partisan - now and then right before the electors meet to cast their votes, Barr announces "wait, we found something suspicious and the vote must be halted".

Don't trust them until the electors have cast their votes. It ain't over til then.

 

[UncleTrvlingJim]

Durham has a pretty solid reputation, and I haven't seen anything with his current investigation to make me doubt his integrity. I think this is obviously a political move by Barr, but the best course of action is to let his investigation continue to completion.

 

[DaveXA]

Durham has a pretty solid reputation, and I haven't seen anything with his current investigation to make me doubt his integrity. I think this is obviously a political move by Barr, but the best course of action is to let his investigation continue to completion.

Yeah, from what I've heard through connections here, Durham is a professional through and through. Not worried about his integrity at all.

That said, he's in a position where it's not going to matter what he does because people have already made up their minds.

 

[BayouSAINTJoe]

Special Counsel still work for the Attorney General. Attempting to influence substantive findings or to otherwise threaten the SC is fundamentally inappropriate - and Biden knows that. It's just another example of where Trump's behavior really was a substantial departure from law, institution, and custom. He's the deviant, others aren't just going to follow suit because he did it.

But if the SC is conducting an unprofessional investigation, the AG can demand better controls. But I don't recall many leaks from Durham's other investigation and he's a longtime DOJ prosecutor. Leaks in a criminal investigation are big problems because they can butt area the evidence and the jury pool. Leaks can get evidence tossed from a case. People were surprised that Mueller's team had so few leaks - but it shouldn't be surprising, they're seasoned investigators and prosecutors. Political investigations and criminal investigations are two entirely different animals.

That's all fine and good if it were a legitimate SC with the goal of charging someone else w/ a crime. In this case, I'm almost 100% certain, the goal isn't to convict anyone, it's purely political...the goal is to just stir up crap to get a certain reaction from the Biden admin which in turn can prompt an "impeachment" reaction from the trumpists in the House, which is why they won't be all that concerned about leaks.

With the first "investigation" I'm of the opinion that the goal was for it to be just an "investigation" for optics, little stuff here and there but nothing in depth with any sort of real goal in mind. Only exception here was that they managed to actually find a sacrificial lamb who got sloppy with paperwork and fudged some minute detail to expedite a FISA warrant app or something. Otherwise they got nothing.

Now with this SC, there's an intended goal, and you've already seen them sorta laying the groundwork with that statement by Lindsey saying that the Biden admin should give this SC the same level of respect as the Mueller SC. They want the SC to stir crap up, be unprofessional, etc...I expect nothing less, then if the Biden admin AG calls into question the conduct of the SC, they'll (GOP) then in turn raise a big hoopla over the Biden admin trying to shut down the investigation. See the problem is that you're expecting there to be some sort of honor or honesty about how things are expected to go down, lower that expectation then you wont be surprised by anything.

 

[superchuck500]

Sort of goes to my point about why criminal investigations can't be leaky:

 

[DaveXA]

Sort of goes to my point about why criminal investigations can't be leaky:

Why am I not surprised? All the more reason to place guardrails between the WH and DOJ. This shouldn't be happening, and I don't mean Trump shouldn't be doing it, because that goes without saying, but why was the DOJ allowing a WH liasion that kind of access without oversight? Smh.

 

[MT15]

I believe I read that Trump has installed these “liaisons” in nearly every department of the Executive. He really is a wanna be mob boss.