Barr Pressed Durham to Find Flaws in the Russia Investigation. It Didn't Go Well.

[Botany]

Source: NY Times

Egged on by Mr. Trump, Attorney General William P. Barr set out in 2019 to dig into their shared theory that the Russia investigation likely stemmed from a conspiracy by intelligence or law enforcement agencies. To lead the inquiry, Mr. Barr turned to a hard-nosed prosecutor named John H. Durham, and later granted him special counsel status to carry on after Mr. Trump left office.

But after almost four years — far longer than the Russia investigation itself — Mr. Durham’s work is coming to an end without uncovering anything like the deep state plot alleged by Mr. Trump and suspected by Mr. Barr.

snip

Mr. Barr and Mr. Durham never disclosed that their inquiry expanded in the fall of 2019, based on a tip from Italian officials, to include a criminal investigation into suspicious financial dealings related to Mr. Trump. The specifics of the tip and how they handled the investigation remain unclear, but Mr. Durham brought no charges over it.

snip

Mr. Trump would repeatedly portray the Mueller report as having found “no collusion with Russia.” The reality was more complex. In fact, the report detailed “numerous links between the Russian government and the Trump campaign,” and it established both how Moscow had worked to help Mr. Trump win and how his campaign had expected to benefit from the foreign interference.

snip

But the broader findings contradicted Mr. Trump’s accusations and the rationale for Mr. Durham’s inquiry. Mr. Horowitz found no evidence that F.B.I. actions were politically motivated. And he concluded that the investigation’s basis — an Australian diplomat’s tip that a Trump campaign adviser had seemed to disclose advance knowledge that Russia would release hacked Democratic emails — had been sufficient to lawfully open it.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/barr-pressed-durham-to-find-flaws-in-the-russia-investigation-it-didn-t-go-well/ar-AA16M9x9?ocid=windirect&cvid=8c4400957f264fcb9a7ab9e8c9728fe4

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I hope they get to the bottom of the Hunter Biden and his laptop thing.

[SouthernDem4ever]

1. Whenever the truth is shined on repuglican criminality

it never goes well for them. So after that they usually shut up and cover up.

[TheRealNorth]

2. And distract

They throw the MSM a bone and watch them stumble over each other trying to chase the lede.

[agingdem]

10. why ask Italy for info on Trump/Russia collusion?

I remember Sydney Powell's Italian machines flipping votes for Hugo Chavez bullshit (something like that) but that had to do with Trump and his election conspiracy dreck..

[Captain Zero]

29. Because they thought Italians corrupt enough

To cook something up in exchange for something they wanted? Probably like trump tried to extort Ukraine for military support, which of course was a quid pro quo using a government office which is what got the mfer Trump impeached the first time.

[PerceptionManagement]

3. no evidence that F.B.I. actions were politically motivated. How did he miss Charles McGonigal?

Charles McGonigal, the former FBI Special Agent in Charge of the New York Field Office who retired in 2018, was charged through a nine-count indictment unsealed Monday in Washington, D.C.

[blm]

4. Durham was working with Seth DuCharme for Barr. DuCharme is

Now representing…..Charles McGonigal. It was all a cover up effort to protect Trump and Russia.

[agingdem]

5. and remember Trump was doing his damndest to get his hands on

Last edited Thu Jan 26, 2023, 05:45 PM - Edit history (1)

the Russia investigation documents before he left office..

[agingdem]

25. Trump floated the idea of swapping the MAL

files in exchange for the documents about the FBI probe into his 2016 campaign's ties to Russia (NYT)..

[wnylib]

17. Putin's motivation was not so much that he wanted Trump as

President, but that he did not want Hillary Clinton to win. Hillary had publicly criticized Putin's annexation of Crimea.

[ancianita]

6. Wait. Apparently, Barr didn't press Durham, or vice versa?

So the rawstory headline nails it? https://www.democraticunderground.com/100217592244

"Italian officials... unexpectedly offered a potentially explosive tip linking Mr. Trump to certain suspected financial crimes," the Times reports. "Mr. Barr and [former special counsel John] Durham decided that the tip was too serious and credible to ignore. But rather than assign it to another prosecutor, Mr. Barr had Mr. Durham investigate the matter himself."

Mr. Barr and Mr. Durham never disclosed that their inquiry expanded in the fall of 2019, based on a tip from Italian officials, to include a criminal investigation into suspicious financial dealings related to Mr. Trump. The specifics of the tip and how they handled the investigation remain unclear, but Mr. Durham brought no charges over it.

Just blindly speculating here, obviously.
Could there even be a Deripaska-Trump-McGonigal connection? Could it actually be Barr? I find it hard to believe that Barr's guy didn't sniff out what the Italians said to Barr. Maybe Durham was just barking up the wrong "corrupt FBI tree" at the time? Maybe Barr didn't tell Durham all of what the Italians told Barr himself about Trump?

Charles McGonigal, 54, the former head of counterintelligence for the FBI's New York office, is accused of secretly working for a U.S.-sanctioned Russian oligarch, Oleg Deripaska...as well as conspiring to commit money laundering.

Prosecutors said that McGonigal is alleged to have tried to help Deripaska get off the sanctions list after leaving the FBI in 2018. He is also alleged to have taken money off the Russian billionaire in 2019 in order to investigate a rival oligarch.

And now McGonigal takes the fall but not Barr?

[Botany]

7. I think Durham's investigation was very successful because it was a suicide mission to keep the

media from talking about and the people from knowing about Alfa Bank.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/10/15/was-there-a-connection-between-a-russian-bank-and-the-trump-campaign

IOW The reason for the Durham investigation was to keep people from talking about
Putin's Alfa Bank's computer having > 2,000 contacts with the Trump campaign's
Computer Server in Lititiz, PA.

**********

I don't Charles McGonigal was the only dirty player in the FBI's NY City's Office

[ancianita]

8. Ah. Makes sense. There've been so many moving parts to this corruption it's hard to keep up.

Thanks.

[Botany]

9. Putin installing Trump into the biggest crime in America's history. I think Putin installed TFG ..

... cause America to split along social/political/educational lines.

"There've been so many moving parts ... " Yup!

[ancianita]

12. So the other moving part re McGonigal and Deripaska, is its own separate part. Right?

Or is Alfa Bank connected to them, too. And Barr? He seems like his own separate moving part who knew about Alfa Bank and others connected to it besides Trump & Putin. But. Just wondering, like a good pattern seeking chimp.

[Botany]

16. If you really want to go into the weeds the Alfa Bank Computer Server also had connections to ...

... a computer server in Michigan that was linked to Betsy DeVoss/Erik Prince and Mr. Prince (Blackwater)
in January '17 just happened to run into a Russian Agent, a Saudi Money Man, and some kind of middle man
from the middle east on the Seychelles Islands. 900 miles off the coast of east central Africa in Indian Ocean.



Now Deripaska was paying McGonigal but I doubt he was doing it w/out Putin's OK.
I don't think McGonigal was the only one he was paying off, Deripaska would not have
been paying McGonigal w/out Putin's OK, and Trump no doubt knew that the NYC FBI's
office was dirty. I might be wrong on any or all of that.

[ancianita]

20. I don't want to get into the weeds, but sometimes that's where the criming is. Sure, Trump would

deflect all that onto possibly corrupt FBI, that's how he and mafia bosses work. You could be wrong, but I'm inclined to buy into your read on this.

[Bev54]

18. I think his main objective was to stop further investigation in Trump's ties with Russia

especially after Trump was out of office. I am pretty sure they both knew there was no conspiracy to make Trump look guilty, he was guilty and Barr had the evidence. Both Barr and Durham should be tried for obstruction.

[Botany]

19. Barr is a long time "GOP Fixer"

They had Reagan, Bush, Olie North, Cap Weinberger and a bunch off others cold on Iran Contra
... sell weapons to the Ayatollah, get him to hold the hostages until after the election, hide the
money in Swiss Bank Accounts, and use that money to run a war in Central America along with
running cocaine .... and Bill B just told HW to pardon everybody.

[republianmushroom]

11. 24 months and counting

[Bernardo de La Paz]

14. 39

[Bernardo de La Paz]

13. mR tRump knew there was collusion. His motive for Durham was coverup by misdirection. . . nt

[blm]

21. Exactly

[Brother Buzz]

15. Obstruction of justice, Baby! It's not the crime, it's the cover-up

[oasis]

22. K and R

[tonekat]

23. I hope the Biden DOJ picks up on the Italy thing

TDFG did something there, and it sounds major.

And, this whole episode follows in the typical behavior of the GOP: Quick to accuse, but when they're wrong, they don't say a word. The rights of the people to know be damned.

[oasis]

27. Kick

[Captain Zero]

28. I say Durham is mobbed up with Russia too,

Just like MGcGonigal.

[Botany]

30. He might very well be but I would bet everything that MGcGonigal was not the only dirty FBI agent @

NYC's FBI Field office.

[bluestarone]

32. Oh man i agree 100%

We got two years left to get something done. God help us if THIS isn't fully thought out, and investigated by persons we can trust!

[oasis]

31. Kick