Durham investigation ends after three years of searching, $40 million spent, and nothing found

[landscapingvol]

This forum is constantly trying to make Donald Trump out to be a crusader for the morally strong, but forgotten, middle class workers of rural America. Trump has never been any such thing. He was merely adept at identifying a segment of disaffected Republican voters who would be most susceptible to his transparent manipulation. The Trump freak show has given uneducated miscreants, a place to fit in. It is on display in this forum every day. Through Trump, you feel like you know the secret handshake. There is a profoundly pathetic element at work here. You people are sad.

I wonder what the 14% food price inflation is doing for the middle class since you seem to be so concerned with their well being that you elect a senile goofball who literally has no clue what he is doing or where is most of the time. "Yeah, but what about Donald Trump" is the general extent of your arguments

 

[NCFisher]

FBI Put Key Dossier Source on Payroll in Apparent Effort to Conceal Dossier Fabrications

The essentials:
Igor Danchenko disavowed the Steele dossier in a Jan 2017 interview with FBI. Crossfire Hurricane should have ended there and Mueller never appointed. Instead, Danchenko was given CHS status in March 2017 by FBI, which effectively shielded him and the agency from congressional scrutiny under the “sources and methods” justification.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"The timing of Danchenko’s elevation to CHS status coincided with two major developments. First, on March 20, 2017, then FBI Director James Comey told Congress that the Trump campaign was under investigation for alleged ties to Russia. At the time, Comey knew that Danchenko had shredded the investigation’s predicate, yet he chose to forge on regardless. Second, also in March 2017, Nunes found out from a whistleblower in the intelligence community that the Trump transition team had been spied on. Nunes complained that Congress hadn’t been given that information."

...Contrary to the FBI’s claims, Danchenko wasn’t a Russian-based source with access to Kremlin insiders. Instead, he was a Beltway insider who had spent a number of years working at the Democratic-leaning Brookings Institution, where anti-Trump impeachment witness Fiona Hill was his mentor. Yet, the FBI continued to pay Danchenko, as well as maintaining his CHS status until October of 2020.

It appears that the sole purpose of making Danchenko a CHS was to conceal FBI malfeasance from Congress, from the FISA court, and from the public; that opens up new avenues for Durham to criminally pursue FBI officials. These officials include former FBI Director James Comey, former Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, former head of counterespionage Peter Strzok, and Danchenko case agent Brian Auten.

It was thought that the statute of limitations for bringing charges against FBI officials had lapsed earlier this year, when five years had passed from the time the officials took their respective actions. However, it now appears as if the time limit has been extended because the FBI continued employing Danchenko under false pretenses until October 2020. That gives Durham plenty of time to pursue FBI officials, if he’s so inclined.
------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[Franklin Pierce]

Biden DOJ goes to bat for Trump against disgraced ex-FBI agent Peter Strzok

The Biden Justice Department released fired FBI special agent Peter Strzok’s termination letter as part of its efforts to fight the fired special agent’s attempts to subpoena former President Donald Trump.

Strzok wants to depose Trump and FBI Director Christopher Wray, but the Biden Justice Department has been fighting that in court for months. He sued the FBI in 2019 for alleged wrongful termination, which followed the emergence of his anti-Trump texts.

DOJ Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian Netter, along with other Justice Department officials, went to bat for the former president in a court appearance last week.

Biden DOJ goes to bat for Trump against disgraced ex-FBI agent Peter Strzok

 

[MarcoVol]

Biden DOJ goes to bat for Trump against disgraced ex-FBI agent Peter Strzok

The Biden Justice Department released fired FBI special agent Peter Strzok’s termination letter as part of its efforts to fight the fired special agent’s attempts to subpoena former President Donald Trump.

Strzok wants to depose Trump and FBI Director Christopher Wray, but the Biden Justice Department has been fighting that in court for months. He sued the FBI in 2019 for alleged wrongful termination, which followed the emergence of his anti-Trump texts.

DOJ Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian Netter, along with other Justice Department officials, went to bat for the former president in a court appearance last week.

Biden DOJ goes to bat for Trump against disgraced ex-FBI agent Peter Strzok

Can’t be true, I’ve been told Biden controls the DOJ and is intent on hurting trump at all costs

 

[MontyPython]

New Durham Bombshell: FBI Paid Russian accused of lying as a confidential informant against Trump

Prosecutor says Igor Danchenko, the primary source for the discredited Steele dossier, was paid by FBI as confidential human source for three years despite prior concerns he was tied to Russian intelligence services.

In a bombshell revelation, Special Prosecutor John Durham revealed Tuesday in court filings that the FBI paid a Russian businessman as a confidential human source in the investigation of Donald Trump's 2016 campaign even though it had prior concerns that businessman was tied to Moscow's intelligence services.

Durham persuaded the federal judge in the upcoming trial of Igor Danchenko to unseal a motion revealing that Danchenko, the primary source of the now-discredited Steele dossier, was paid by the FBI as a confidential human source for more than three years until the fall of 2020 when he was terminated for lying to agents.

Danchenko is charged with five counts of lying to the bureau during that relationship and faces trial next month in federal court in the Virginia suburbs of Washington D.C.

New Durham bombshell: FBI paid Russian accused of lying as a confidential informant against Trump

LMAO. Durham has proved to be nothing more than a Trump windmill jouster. Wonder how much ol' Donald wired to his offshore account.

Durham rebukes his own witness and slams FBI’s Russia probe after trial setbacks

"The final expected trial of special counsel John Durham’s probe took an unexpected turn Wednesday, with Durham grilling and rebuking his own witness after the witness seemed to bolster the defense of Igor Danchenko, a key Steele dossier source.

The dynamic was surprising because it was Durham’s first witness. And at times, while Durham personally questioned the witness, he strayed from the narrow case against Danchenko and focused more on the FBI’s mistakes in 2016 as it investigated then-candidate Donald Trump.

Many of Durham’s actions Wednesday vindicated his critics’ main complaint – that he has used his trials to push a dubious narrative of intentional government misconduct against Trump, and of a far-reaching conspiracy by Democrats to smear Trump, without ever actually charging it.

The stakes are high for Durham, who has taken on an unprecedented role in this trial by personally handling most arguments and questioning so far. His inquiry is winding down after more than three years, and he has only secured one guilty plea from an FBI lawyer that resulted in zero jail time. His only other case, against a Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer, ended with a swift jury acquittal in May."

 

[Orange_Vol1321]

Wonder why Durham didn't bring additional charges against others?

Probably because he didn't want to commit suicide with 3 gunshots to the back of the head??

 

[Orange_Vol1321]

"On May 13, 2019, then-Attorney General Bill Barr let it be known that at Donald Trump’s “request,” he was conducting an investigation into the origins of the Russia investigation. To conduct this investigation, Barr appointed his very own special prosecutor, U.S. Attorney John Durham. For the next three-and-a-half years, Republicans made confident predictions that “Bull” Durham was going to be the man to finally “lock ‘er up.” Surely Durham, unleashed with no deadline, budgetary limit, or constraint on where he looked, would prove conclusively that every conspiracy theory pushed by Trump was true.

But after more than three years and more than $40 million spent, Durham managed to produce just a single charge: accusing Democratic-linked attorney Michael Sussmann of lying to the FBI for not revealing secondhand connections to Hillary Clinton’s campaign when talking to them about Donald Trump’s Russia dealings. In May, a jury found Sussman not guilty of the ridiculous charge."

Oh noooo, 40 million?? Take a lot of investigations to get to that Ukraine free money number.

 

[lawgator1]

I raise you 2 failed impeachments, a NY AG investigation, and a raid

Still nothing





yet. But not looking good for Trump to evade responsibility, as he has so often before/QUOTE]


Fyp

 

[tim]

Occam’s razor. Look it up

 

[NCFisher]

LMAO. Durham has proved to be nothing more than a Trump windmill jouster. Wonder how much ol' Donald wired to his offshore account.

Durham rebukes his own witness and slams FBI’s Russia probe after trial setbacks

"The final expected trial of special counsel John Durham’s probe took an unexpected turn Wednesday, with Durham grilling and rebuking his own witness after the witness seemed to bolster the defense of Igor Danchenko, a key Steele dossier source.

The dynamic was surprising because it was Durham’s first witness. And at times, while Durham personally questioned the witness, he strayed from the narrow case against Danchenko and focused more on the FBI’s mistakes in 2016 as it investigated then-candidate Donald Trump.

Many of Durham’s actions Wednesday vindicated his critics’ main complaint – that he has used his trials to push a dubious narrative of intentional government misconduct against Trump, and of a far-reaching conspiracy by Democrats to smear Trump, without ever actually charging it.

The stakes are high for Durham, who has taken on an unprecedented role in this trial by personally handling most arguments and questioning so far. His inquiry is winding down after more than three years, and he has only secured one guilty plea from an FBI lawyer that resulted in zero jail time. His only other case, against a Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer, ended with a swift jury acquittal in May."

Auten isn't simply a witness; he's a subject of Durham's investigation. Auten was referred for FBI investigation and discipline by DOJ IG Horowitz for his role in the illegal FISA warrant(s) re: Carter Page and his mischaracterization of G. Papadopoulos. FBI whistleblowers have identified him as the person whose report was used to characterize the H. Biden story as disinformation.

Given his testimony, he and the FBI have had two bad days in court.

 

[NCFisher]

John Durham unmistakably puts FBI on trial alongside its Russian collusion informant
Durham has managed to use his third and widely assumed last trial to drop bombshell after bombshell that other inquiries failed to uncover. Even the most versed in the case have been stunned.

The effort began during pretrial motions.

Danchenko, the primary source for the now-debunked Steele dossier, was someone who had both lied to FBI agents and had troubling ties to Russian intelligence. But Durham revealed he was inexplicably hired by the bureau, despite that record, to be a paid confidential human source for three years.

Durham followed that with a stunner on day 1 of the trial, getting FBI senior analyst Brian Auten to reveal that the FBI had been unable to confirm a single fact in the Steele dossier by mid-October 2016 but nonetheless grabbed some of its most sensational claims about Trump and stuck them into a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant marked "verified" that authorized spying on the Trump campaign and former adviser Carter Page.

"On October 21, 2016, did you have any information to corroborate that information?" Durham asked, referring to the Carter Page FISA application submitted on that date.

"No," Auten replied.

The bureau was so desperate to find corroboration to justify Steele's allegations that it offered up to $1 million to former British MI6 agent Christopher Steele, a paid researcher for Hillary Clinton's campaign, if he could corroborate his dossier. Steele did not, Auten told the jury.

That revelation even shocked former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, who conducted the first exhaustive probe that debunked the dossier and exposed FBI wrongdoing. Nunes told Just the News on Thursday he was never told about the $1 million payment despite subpoenaing the FBI.

"I hate to say this, but like a new shoe drops every day," Nunes told the John Solomon Reports podcast in referring to Durham's work. "And it's like every day we find out something new. And I mean, look, I don't know how you describe this $1 million payment or potential payment to Steele as anything other than what it is. It was a bounty program to get Donald Trump."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There's considerably more; the article is well worth 15 minutes reading.

 

[NCFisher]

Kevin Brock, retired FBI chief of intelligence, told Just the News that the $1 million dangle was completely out of the norm for the bureau.

"The Crossfire Hurricane investigative team, managed by James Comey's headquarters executives, offered a truly outrageous sum of money to Christopher Steele as an 'incentive' to corroborate his own information," Brock said. "Paying money to incentivize a source risks a corrupt outcome. Paying a lot of money risks a lot of corruption. Incentive payments are not normal FBI policy.

"The FBI has specific required procedures for corroborating or vetting a source, especially when that source's information is going to be used in any kind of affidavit. Having a source corroborate his own information is not one of those procedures. That's the job of the investigator."

But Brock said Auten's admission that the bureau submitted evidence to the FISA court that wasn't at all corroborated was even more damning under the bureau's own rules.

"If uncorroborated information is going to be used like this, FBI policy explicitly requires the swearing agent to clearly state that it is not known if the information is accurate or not," he said. "This wasn't done, and it can't be considered a mere oversight. Too many eyes all the way up the chain were laid on this affidavit. We're left with the disappointing conclusion that it was omitted on purpose."
John Durham unmistakably puts FBI on trial alongside its Russian collusion informant

 

[NCFisher]

Patel was asked about the purported reward offer on the "Just the News, No Noise" TV show Tuesday. The House Intelligence panel chaired by then-Rep. Devin Nunes sent 17 congressional subpoenas "for information specifically related to payments and confidential human sources," he said, "were denied this information, and we learn it four years after our investigation."

"That means somebody obstructed a congressional investigation with congressional subpoenas," said Patel, a former national security prosecutor.

This exposes "the depths that [the FBI] would go to to falsely corroborate the Steele dossier, which ... shows they didn't have it verified, which we've said the whole time," Patel added.

"And more importantly," he continued, "they were willing to spend a million taxpayer dollars on shoveling political hot garbage through the federal court system just to surveil a political target that would have been totally baseless — it was baseless then."

Referring to a group of senior FBI leaders during the James Comey era as "government gangsters," Patel said "this bombshell" shows that they "were so arrogant, that they said, 'Nobody is going to catch us. We are going to break a constitutional republic's 250-year tradition because we don't like the guy in the White House, and we're going to manufacture a crime on it.'"

--------------------------------------------------------
Retired FBI supervisory special agent Bassem Youssef, one of the bureau's most famous whistleblowers, said Tuesday's revelation at the trial was unlike anything he ever saw in his three-decade FBI career.

"Never in my entire career have I heard of such an offer to pay a source to corroborate their own information," Youssef told Just the News. "The FBI queries other sources in order to validate the original source of information. It is unheard of that the FBI would offer to pay Steele $1 million to corroborate his own information.

"Obviously, the FBI was unable to validate this information through any other source that they had to resort to 'bribing' Steele to lend credibility to his own information, which the FBI knew to be inaccurate and unreliable," he added. "What a sad state of affairs in my beloved FBI."

Bombshell revelation of $1M offer to Steele shows FBI misled Congress on Russia probe: Kash Patel

 

[lawgator1]

It's a bombshell. So you know it's important.

 

[NCFisher]

It's a bombshell. So you know it's important.

With a hollowed out core void of ethics or morality, and unconcerned with rule of law, why did you choose the legal field?
Is it because you bought into collusion at first whiff and are too heavily invested, or you've always been this way?

 

[Franklin Pierce]

Russian analyst behind the Debunked Steele 'Dirty Dossier' was Paid More Than $200,000 by the FBI and Democratic Operative who was a source Admits he LIED About Trump, federal court hears

The ongoing trial of Russia analyst Igor Danchenko has brought more revelations about how the FBI pays for information, with testimony the source got $200,000 over a period of more than three years.

FBI Special Agent Kevin Helson testified about the payments in Danchenko's trial on charges of lying to the FBI, following a years-long investigation by Trump-appointed Special Counsel John Durham into the origins of the Russia probe.

Helson told the court Danchenko, who was a primary source for ex-British Intelligence officer Christopher Steele's infamous dossier, got paid $3,000 for just one meeting.

Durham's team has highlighted the FBI's use of the dossier to secure surveillance warrants on former Trump foreign policy advisor Carter Page.

Helson testified that he put in for an additional $346,000 when he was closed as a source, Fox News reported, but that it didn't get approved. The work that earned him $200,000 came over three and a half years.

On the payroll: Russian analyst Igor Danchenko is on trial on charges of lying to the FBI about his sources. An FBI handler testified that Danchenko was paid $200,000 over a period of three and a half years

That revelation came days after FBI supervisory analyst Brian Auten testified that the FBI offered Steele $1 million in cash to prove the salacious allegations in the dossier he compiled on Trump, but that the bureau didn't hand over the money because Steele couldn't back up the claims.

Danchenko's own sources are also coming under scrutiny and feature in the charges.

Russian analyst behind the debunked Steele 'Dirty Dossier' was paid more than $200,000 by the FBI | Daily Mail Online

 

[volgr]

Congress has to end the DC Circuit. It is a joke. It would be like trying Fed cases in a small rural East TN Court where the jury pool is 90% Conservative. The Swamp is judged by the Swamp. There is virtually no oversight and no accountability.

 

[hog88]

Congress has to end the DC Circuit. It is a joke. It would be like trying Fed cases in a small rural East TN Court where the jury pool is 90% Conservative. The Swamp is judged by the Swamp. There is virtually no oversight and no accountability.

100% agree

 

[NCFisher]

FBI Officials Blocked Investigation Into Dossier Source With Russian Links: Testimony

ALEXANDRIA, Va.—An FBI supervisory agent and former bureau analyst both say they were prevented from opening an investigation into a longtime Democratic operative’s relationships with Russians and key players in assembling the anti-Donald Trump dossier authored by former British spy Christopher Steele.

FBI special agent Amy Anderson and former FBI counterintelligence expert Brittany Hertzog wanted to probe Charles Dolan, a longtime Clinton family associate who did business for years with top Russian officials and also provided information to Igor Danchenko, a key source for Steele’s dossier.

But special agent Joe Nelson, Anderson’s boss, blocked her efforts, Anderson testified.

Hertzog said she was blocked by Brian Auten, another official, who worked on special counsel Robert Mueller’s team.

Anderson and Hertzog testified on Oct. 14 during the trial of Russian business analyst Igor Danchenko before U.S. Eastern District of Virginia Judge Anthony Trenga.
Dolan himself testified Oct. 13 that he worked for Ketchum PR for 13 years and was frequently in Moscow and elsewhere in Russia working with the company’s clients.

Among those clients was the government of the Russian Federation and among those he worked most closely with was Dmitry Peskov, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s press secretary, who Hertzog described as overseeing Russian propaganda and misinformation.

Dolan in his testimony acknowledged that he had a close working relationship with Peskov as well as Olga Galkina, who came from the same town as Danchenko in Russia and was living in Cyprus.

When asked by prosecutor Brittany Shaw if she believed further steps needed to be taken to investigate Dolan, Anderson said, “I did.”

“I wanted to look into him,” she said, lobbying for the agency to explore the Dolan–Peskov connection.

“Anyone who had access to the Kremlin would be important to look into,” she said, maintaining looking into Dolan’s activities was imperative in validating or debunking the dossier.

 

[NCFisher]

To recap: Brian Auten is the supervisory agent over FBI counterintel analysts. When a couple of VN members find funny Durham 'attacking his own witness', Auten's the guy. Who, if they'd read credible reporting rather than the CNN they quoted, they'd have known Auten isn't merely a witness but a target of Durham's investigation. As I suspected and this report confirms:
-Auten was also on the Mueller team
-was key in the four illegal FISA warrants
-quashing the H. Biden investigation

We know FBI had prior considered Danchenko as potentially Russian intelligence possible spy, but used him anyway, even though publicly breaking ties with him. FBI established him as a confidential human source (CHS) to hide the relationship even after he testified in January 2017 the dossier was rubbish, and kept him on the payroll as a CHS until October 2020.

As Kash Patel has stated during the Nunes committee hearings, the DOJFBI withheld Dolan's name despite multiple subpoenas regarding FBI sources; they literally had not heard of Charles Dolan until Durham's investigation of Sussman. The conclusion is that at minimum, DOJ/FBI obstructed justice in a congressional investigation. From the 2016 Crossfire Hurricane onward, FBI blatantly used Russian propaganda that CIA's Brennan alerted the Obama State Dept. and DOJ/FBI in 2016 was a Clinton generated scheme to divert attention from her email scandal and tie Trump to the Kremlin. DOJ/FBI used illegal FISA applications to open investigation into Carter Page and then three successive warrants broadening to everyone in the Trump orbit.

Two points; in addition to covertly making Danchenko a CHS to hide him from inquiry regarding the validity of the dossier and obstructing justice of the congressional inquiry, it's likely that Mueller was appointed for no other reason than to wall off the deceit from prying eyes. It would also explain why Mueller's 'purview' did not include the very Fusion GPS/Clinton/DNC scheme that CIA alerted them to. After all, Danchenko told FBI in January 2017 the dossier - used to expand FBI's investigation and obtain FISA warrants, then generate the Mueller hoax probe - was propaganda. This is why Barr appointed Durham and told the American public that DOJ/FBI knew without question in Jan/2017 the investigations were without predicate, but pushed on regardless instead of terminating the investigation(s).

Gee, (DOJ/FBI) is there (Obama} any (Clinton/DNC) question as (CIA) to whom (congressional Democrats) the Russian (American 'journalists') colluders (State Dept.) actually are?

Lastly, I'd like to thank @MontyPython @lawgator1 for keeping the Durham investigation visible in this thread. Though always at odds with conservatives, it shows their concern for a system in which unaccountable agencies can attempt a coup/insurrection and nearly get away with it. Their dedication to truth and rule of law - TDS aside - is most commendable and reveals their...noteworthy...character.

 

[NCFisher]

Congress has to end the DC Circuit. It is a joke. It would be like trying Fed cases in a small rural East TN Court where the jury pool is 90% Conservative. The Swamp is judged by the Swamp. There is virtually no oversight and no accountability.

Congress needs to deconstruct the FBI DC office, if not terminate the agency itself. If the agency can be salvaged at all, Wray is a continuation of Comey/McCabe corruption and will not be the instrument.

 

[rekinhavoc]

Congress has to end the DC Circuit. It is a joke. It would be like trying Fed cases in a small rural East TN Court where the jury pool is 90% Conservative. The Swamp is judged by the Swamp. There is virtually no oversight and no accountability.

Agreed. Durham has not found anything a DC court could not and would not cover.

 

[rekinhavoc]

Congress needs to deconstruct the FBI DC office, if not terminate the agency itself. If the agency can be salvaged at all, Wray is a continuation of Comey/McCabe corruption and will not be the instrument.

Beholden to whomever is in charge of their funding. Dems won't like it if the script flips.

 

[volgr]

Agreed. Durham has not found anything a DC court could not and would not cover.

Sussmann basically admitted his guilt and the DC jury still said not guilty. This is why bringing charges against Hunter Biden would be a waste of time in DC.

 

[volgr]

Think you would get a fair shake from this former FBI employee if he didn't like your politics? This guy is what 90% of the jury pool in DC would be. This is who would be judging you and who judges THEM.