The Durham debacle
John Durham, the prosecutor appointed by former AG William Barr to "investigate the investigators," was supposed to find the receipts proving a massive criminal conspiracy against Trump. His years-long probe has been hyped endlessly by the right-wing media machine, with its stars promising that he would soon expose the deep state and bring them to justice in court. But, as WaPo's Philip Bump commented Tuesday, Durham's probe now "looks like what Trump and his allies always said the Mueller investigation was: a lengthy fishing expedition that simply doesn't have the goods."
That's because on Tuesday, Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussman, who Durham had charged with lying to the FBI, was quickly acquitted by a jury. "The verdict is a major defeat for Durham and his Justice Department prosecutors, who have spent three years looking for wrongdoing in the Trump-Russia probe," CNN's Marshall Cohen wrote. NYMag's Jonathan Chait chimed in: "The fact Durham even had to bring this case was a testament to the failure of his probe. He had set out to uncover the FBI's crimes against Mr. Trump. He was reduced to trying, and failing, to prosecute somebody for lying to the FBI."
Nevertheless, coverage of the case has saturated right-wing media for some time. "It's hard to overstate what a big deal this prosecution was to the 'lock her up' crowd, from Sean Hannity to QAnon," The Daily Beast's Will Sommer noted. "And now it's come to nothing!"
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