John Durham Archives - The Wisconsin Daily Star

Commentary: Combating the Censorship Industrial Complex

June 1, 2023 RealClearWire

It’s been nearly six months since the first installment of the Twitter Files — the journalistic effort by Matt Taibbi, Michael Shellenberger, Bari Weiss, Lee Fang, and many others to expose the myriad channels by which the U.S government cooperated with Twitter on content moderation and censorship — was first published. Twitter Files One, perhaps the mildest of more than 20 unique reports, details the social media company’s internal deliberations in the days before the New York Post’s story about Hunter Biden’s laptop was removed from the site. Later reports have exposed the tendrils of a governmental apparatus that influenced some of the most significant media distortions in recent American history, from the fraudulent Hamilton 68 misinformation tracking dashboard to the FBI’s intimate involvement with Twitter’s content-moderation practices.

Senators Want to Know Why Former FBI Officials Refused to Cooperate With Durham Investigation

May 25, 2023May 24, 2023 M.D. Kittle

U.S. Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Ron Johnson (R-WI) want Special Counsel John Durham to explain why former high-level government officials refused to cooperate with his investigation exposing the FBI for its many failures in the bogus Trump-Russia collusion probe.

Grassley, ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, and Johnson, ranking member of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, sent Durham a letter Tuesday asking why former FBI Director James Comey, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, and former FBI Assistant Director of the Counterintelligence Division Peter Strzok declined to fully cooperate.

Durham: FBI Dropped Four Different Probes into Clinton Family Ahead of 2016

May 20, 2023May 19, 2023 Wisconsin Daily Star Staff

One of the claims made by Special Counsel John Durham in his official report is that the FBI dropped at least four criminal investigations into Bill and Hillary Clinton just before the 2016 election.

According to the New York Post, the FBI had previously been investigating attempts by multiple foreign nations and other foreign entities to influence the Clinton family through donations to their non-profit, the Clinton Foundation, as well as donations to Hillary’s failed 2016 presidential campaign.

Commentary: Look Ahead, Not Backwards, to Hold the Justice Department Accountable

May 20, 2023 Wisconsin Daily Star Staff

Release of Special Counsel John Durham’s report on law enforcement and intelligence misconduct related to the 2016 presidential election has been met with outrage, recriminations, and a justified amount of vindication for those, including President Donald Trump, who helped expose the brazen operation from the start.

Commentary: Congress and President Must Oversee the FISA Court and All FISA Warrants After Durham Report Revelations

May 17, 2023May 16, 2023 Wisconsin Daily Star Staff

Special Counsel John Durham has finished his voluminous report outlining the Justice Department, State Department, intelligence agencies and FBI’s “confirmation bias” that led to a years-long investigation of former President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, transition and then administration falsely alleging that Trump and his campaign were Russian agents who had helped Moscow hack the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and put their emails onto Wikileaks despite the fact that the FBI could not “corroborate a single substantive allegation in the [Christopher] Steele dossier reporting,” which was sourced to the Hillary Clinton campaign and the DNC.

John Durham Releases Final Report Concluding FBI Had No Verified Intel When It Opened Probe on Trump

May 15, 2023 Just the News

Special Counsel John Durham released his final report Monday after more than three years investigating the Russia collusion probe, declaring the FBI has no verified intelligence or evidence when it opened up a probe of President Donald Trump’s campaign in the summer of 2016.

Unchastened by Russiagate, The New York Times Doubles Down in Its Special Counsel Coverage

February 16, 2023 RealClearWire

Special Counsel John Durham, leading a multi-year probe of how U.S. intelligence officials conducted the Russia investigation, has yet to issue his final report. But according to the New York Times, Durham has already come up empty.

Durham’s team, the Times declared in a widely circulated Jan. 26 article, has gone “unsuccessfully down one path after another” and ultimately “failed to find wrongdoing in the origins of the Russia inquiry.” The three bylined reporters, Charlie Savage, Adam Goldman, and Katie Benner, base their conclusion on a “monthslong review,” including interviews “with more than a dozen current and former officials.”

Jury Finds Danchenko Not Guilty on All Counts of Lying to the FBI

October 19, 2022October 18, 2022 Just the News

A jury on Tuesday found Steele dossier contributor Igor Dancheko not guilty on all counts pursuant to charges of lying to the FBI about his relationship with the sources for the Trump opposition research documents.

The case was led by Special Counsel John Durham who led much of the prosecution’s questioning of witnesses in the case and whose intent for the trial was at least in part intended to expose the FBI’s mishandling of the large Russia-2016 Trump campaign collusion probe.

John Durham Puts FBI on Trial Alongside Its Russian Collusion Informant

October 15, 2022October 14, 2022 Just the News

Igor Danchenko is the named defendant at this week’s trial, charged with lying as an informant in the now discredited Russia collusion investigation. But with probing questions and searing redirects, Special Counsel John Durham has turned the Russian researcher’s trial in the U.S. District courtroom in Alexandria, Va., into an expose of stunning FBI failures and omissions in its now-infamous pursuit of Donald Trump for crimes that turned out to be nonexistent.

Durham Shows Jurors Emails to Prove Danchencko Concealed, Lied to FBI About Steele Dossier Sources

October 13, 2022October 12, 2022 Wisconsin Daily Star Staff

In the opening of the second day of Special Counsel John Durham’s case against Russia intelligence expert Igor Danchencko, Durham walked jurors through a series of emails to bolster his case that Danchenko lied to the FBI about gathering information in the agency’s 2016 Russia collusion probe.

Danchenko faces five counts for allegedly lying to the FBI about his role in gathering information about then-GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump during his 2016 White House bid, as part of a federal investigation into alleged collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign.

FBI Intel Analyst Tells Durham Agency Offered Steele $1 Million to Corroborate Dossier

October 12, 2022October 11, 2022 Just the News

An FBI analyst on Tuesday in federal court told Special Counsel John Durham the agency offered former British spy Christopher Steele “up to $1 million” to corroborate evidence in his now-discredited dossier that was central to a federal investigation into possible collusion between Russia and the 2016 Trump presidential campaign.

Commentary: Durham Prosecutes FBI Informants, Protects Their Handlers

September 30, 2022September 29, 2022 RealClearWire

Since being named special counsel in October 2020, John Durham has investigated or indicted several unscrupulous anti-Trump informants. But he has spared the FBI agents who handled them, raising suspicions he’s letting investigators off the hook in his waning investigation of misconduct in the Russiagate probe.

In recent court filings, Durham has portrayed the G-men as naive recipients of bad information, tricked into opening improper investigations targeting Donald Trump and obtaining invalid warrants to spy on one of his advisers.

New Durham Bombshell: FBI Paid Russian Accused of Lying as a Confidential Informant Against Trump

September 14, 2022September 13, 2022 Just the News

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.

John Durham Asks Federal Court to Issue 30 Subpoenas for Steele Dossier Source Igor Danchenko’s Trial

July 15, 2022July 14, 2022 Wisconsin Daily Star Staff

Special counsel John Durham on Tuesday asked a federal court to issue 30 subpoenas for testimony in the trial against Igor Danchenko, the primary source of the discredited Steele dossier.

The court filing asked the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia to issue the subpoenas for an “appearance before said Court at Alexandria, Virginia,” starting on Oct. 11 “to testify on behalf of the United States.”

Commentary: It’s Time to Dismantle the Dysfunctional, Self-Serving, Gluttonous Company Town That Is D.C.

June 6, 2022 Admin

Gertrude Stein famously warned that it was important to know how far to go when going too far.

It pains me to admit that Democrats seem to have a far better sense of all that than do Republicans. Perhaps it’s because Democrats have a visceral appreciation of William Hazlitt’s observation that “those who lack delicacy hold us in their power.” The Democrats, that is to say, long ago became expert at the game of holding their opponents to standards that they themselves violate not just with impunity but with ostentatious glee.

Ex-Hillary Clinton Campaign Lawyer Sussmann Found Not Guilty of Lying to FBI

May 31, 2022 Wisconsin Daily Star Staff

The jury in the trial of 2016 Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann on Tuesday found the defendant not guilty on a charge of providing a false statement to the FBI, after deliberating in the morning and on Friday.

Commentary: Stolen Elections, a Tale of Two D.C. Courtrooms

May 28, 2022May 27, 2022 Wisconsin Daily Star Staff

The Elijah Barrett Prettyman Courthouse in Washington, D.C. is center stage this month to two competing tales of stolen presidential elections.

In the courtroom of U.S. District Court Judge Christopher Cooper, federal prosecutors have presented a detailed account of the greatest scandal in U.S. political history: the conspiracy of the country’s most powerful interests to fabricate the Trump-Russia collusion hoax in order to sabotage Donald Trump before the 2016 election.

Hillary Factor: Evidence Now Shows False Russia Collusion Story Began and Ended with Clinton

May 22, 2022May 21, 2022 Wisconsin Daily Star Staff

In an era where the hunt for disinformation has become a political obsession, Hillary Clinton has mostly escaped having to answer what role she played in spreading the false Russia collusion narrative that gripped America for nearly three years.

On Friday, that dodge ended with a most unlikely witness: her former campaign manager Robby Mook, who was supposed to be a witness helping the defense of her former campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann on a charge of lying to the FBI.

Blocking Evidence: Clinton Campaign Tries to Keep Memos from Durham’s Upcoming Trial

April 21, 2022April 20, 2022 Wisconsin Daily Star Staff

Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and its former top officials are intervening in Special Counsel John Durham’s investigation, seeking to block the release of memos about its Russia research on Donald Trump on grounds that it is covered by attorney-client privilege.

Durham Says Clinton Lawyer Engaged in a ‘Political Deceit’ When Giving Trump Dirt to FBI

March 6, 2022March 5, 2022 Wisconsin Daily Star Staff

Former Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann engaged in “political deceit” during his contacts with the FBI and deprived agents of critical information that could have influenced the course of the Russia probe, Special Counsel John Durham declared in a new filing asking a court not to dismiss his criminal case.

Commentary: The Checkered Past of the FBI Cyber Contractor Who ‘Spied’ on Trump

February 18, 2022February 17, 2022 RealClearWire

Long before FBI computer contractor and Clinton operative Rodney L. Joffe allegedly trolled Internet traffic for dirt on President Trump, he mined direct-marketing contact lists for the names and addresses of unwitting Americans to target in a promotional scam involving a grandfather clock.

Fast-Growing Number of Democrats Want Hillary Clinton Investigated for Her Role in Russiagate

February 15, 2022February 14, 2022 Wisconsin Daily Star Staff

An increasing number of Democrats believe Hillary Clinton should be investigated by special counsel John Durham in connection with her alleged involvement in manufacturing ties between 2016 presidential rival Donald Trump and the Russia, according to a recent survey.

The survey, by TechnoMetrica Institute of Policy and Politics, found 75% of respondents who follow the story think Clinton and her campaign advisers should be investigated for her role in so-called Russiagate, according to several news reports.

Commentary: The Russiagate Evidence Builds

January 28, 2022January 27, 2022 RealClearWire

As indictments and new court filings indicate that Special Counsel John Durham is investigating Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign for feeding false reports to the FBI to incriminate Donald Trump and his advisers as Kremlin agents, Clinton’s role in the burgeoning scandal remains elusive. What did she know and when did she know it?

Top officials involved in her campaign have repeatedly claimed, some under oath, that they and the candidate were unaware of the foundation of their disinformation campaign: the 35-page collection of now debunked claims of Trump/Russia collusion known as the Steele dossier. Even though her campaign helped pay for the dossier, they claim she only read it after BuzzFeed News published it in 2017.

Commentary: Durham vs. Horowitz and the FBI’s Trump-Russia Reckoning

January 21, 2022January 20, 2022 RealClearWire

As he documents the role of Hillary Clinton’s campaign in generating false allegations of Trump-Russia collusion, Special Counsel John Durham has also previewed a challenge to the FBI’s claims about how and why its counterintelligence investigation of the Trump campaign began. At stake is the completeness of the official reckoning within the U.S. government over the Russiagate scandal – and whether there will be an accounting commensurate with the offense: the abuse of the nation’s highest law enforcement and intelligence powers to damage an opposition presidential candidate turned president, at the behest of his opponent from the governing party he defeated.

The drama is playing out against the clashing approaches of the two Justice Department officials tasked with scrutinizing the Russia probe’s origins and unearthing any misconduct: Durham, the Sphinx-like prosecutor with a reputation for toughness whose work continues; and Michael Horowitz, the Department of Justice inspector general, whose December 2019 report faulted the FBI’s handling of the Russia probe but nonetheless concluded that it was launched in good faith.

Durham Zeroes In on Clinton Campaign, Could Call Some Aides to Testify, Court Memo Reveals

December 23, 2021 Admin

Hillary Clinton’s team long fought to keep its ties to Christopher Steele’s dossier from public view, but Special Counsel John Durham is now making clear he has a strong interest in her campaign’s behavior during the Russia collusion probe. He is even suggesting some of her aides could be summoned as trial witnesses.

Durham’s earth-shaking revelation came inside a routine court filing this month in the case of Igor Y. Danchenko, a Russian analyst who was a primary source in 2016 for Steele’s now-infamous dossier. Danchenko has been charged with repeatedly lying to the FBI during the Russia collusion probe and has pleaded innocent.

Washington Post Has Corrected More Than a Dozen Articles Relating to Its Steele Dossier Coverage

November 19, 2021November 18, 2021 Wisconsin Daily Star Staff

The Washington Post made headlines last week when it corrected and removed significant parts of its own reporting on the now-discredited Steele Dossier.

The august newspaper reported that it “could no longer stand by the accuracy” of some of their reporting

Analysis: The Biggest Loser of the Durham Indictments May Be James Comey’s FBI

November 8, 2021November 7, 2021 Wisconsin Daily Star Staff

Special Counsel John Durham’s latest criminal case is as much an indictment of James Comey’s FBI as it is of the primary source of the Steele dossier, whom Durham accuses of repeatedly lying to agents.

The Steele dossier was the central evidence used by the FBI to win four consecutive FISA warrants targeting Trump’s campaign — and in 39 pages of painstaking detail the indictment lays out just how flawed and fake central elements of the dossier were.

Russian Analyst, Primary Source for Steele Dossier Charged with Repeatedly Lying to FBI

November 5, 2021November 4, 2021 Wisconsin Daily Star Staff

Special Counsel John Durham on Thursday unsealed a federal grand jury indictment charging the primary source for the now-discredited Steele dossier with repeatedly lying to the FBI during the Russia collusion investigation that falsely tarred Donald Trump’s presidency.

The 39-page indictment alleges Russian analyst Igor Danchenko misled the FBI about his contacts with Russian government officials and a Democrat-connected public relations executive, falsehoods that materially affected the FBI’s investigation and its representations to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to get warrants targeting Trump’s campaign and one of its advisers.

Commentary: To Save America, Durham Must Reveal the Whole Russiagate Story and Punish the Guilty

October 6, 2021October 5, 2021 Wisconsin Daily Star Staff

A bit more information has emerged from the John Durham investigation into Russiagate (or “Spygate,” as it is known hereabouts).

This is due to what is likely a leak from one or more of the targets to their loyal propagandists at CNN. (In the article, the reporters do their best to downgrade the scandal they fanned for years as no more than a trivial “dirty trick” that all campaigns do. There’s a well-known word for that adapted into the English language.)

The import of these leaks is usually to soften the impact on the target(s), but it also gives us another indication Durham is still active.

Report: Durham Subpoenas Law Firm Tied to Steele Dossier, Hillary Clinton

October 4, 2021October 3, 2021 Wisconsin Daily Star Staff

Special Counsel John Durham reportedly issued subpoenas to Perkins Coie, a law firm tied to the Steele Dossier, the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign.

The subpoenas are part of Durham’s probe into the origins of the investigation into allegations that Donald Trump’s presidential campaign colluded with Russia, CNN reported.

Commentary: Democrats Repeat the Mistakes of 2016

September 29, 2021September 28, 2021 Wisconsin Daily Star Staff

As we get to the midpoint between the last presidential election and next year’s midterms, all political sides are expending extraordinary effort to ignore the 900-pound gorilla in the formerly smoke-filled room of American politics. This, of course, is Donald Trump.

The Democrats are still outwardly pretending Trump has gone and that his support has evaporated. They also pretend they can hobble him with vexatious litigation and, if necessary, destroy him again by raising the Trump-hate media smear campaign back to ear-splitting levels.

Commentary: John Durham’s Vast Conspiracy

September 29, 2021September 28, 2021 Wisconsin Daily Star Staff

Special Counsel John Durham’s 27-page false-statement indictment of lawyer Michael Sussmann avers a thus-far uncharged conspiracy by Democrat operatives, Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, and others to fabricate, leak, and purvey the most successful and destructive political smear in American history.

Judging from the detailed contents of the indictment, Durham appears to be well on his way to exposing the lies and corrupt schemes that were used to kneecap Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign for president and hamstring his administration for the next four years.

This article is the second in a series regarding the Sussmann indictment which, given its detailed content, strongly indicates that Durham has in hand documentary and supporting evidence to prove how Sussmann and others conspired to impair, obstruct, and defeat the lawful functions of the United States government by dishonest means in order to, among other goals, subvert our political and electoral processes, including the 2016 presidential election.

Investigation: Biden Security Adviser Jake Sullivan Tied to Alleged 2016 Clinton Scheme to Co-Opt the CIA and FBI to Tar Trump

September 28, 2021September 27, 2021 RealClearWire

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan figures prominently in a grand jury investigation run by Special Counsel John Durham into an alleged 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign scheme to use both the FBI and CIA to tar Donald Trump as a colluder with Russia, according to people familiar with the criminal probe, which they say has broadened into a conspiracy case.

Sullivan is facing scrutiny, sources say, over potentially false statements he made about his involvement in the effort, which continued after the election and into 2017. As a senior foreign policy adviser to Clinton, Sullivan spearheaded what was known inside her campaign as a “confidential project” to link Trump to the Kremlin through dubious email-server records provided to the agencies, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Durham Indicts Democrat Lawyer for Making False Statement When He Fed Russia Dirt to FBI

September 16, 2021September 16, 2021 Wisconsin Daily Star Staff

Special Counsel John Durham on Thursday secured an indictment against a prominent Democrat lawyer alleging he developed and fed information to the FBI during the 2016 campaign suggesting Donald Trump was colluding with Russia without disclosing he was being paid by Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

Republicans Demand Update on Long-Awaited Durham Report

August 24, 2021August 23, 2021 The Center Square

After two years of waiting for a federal report on allegations of Democratic spying on the Trump campaign, Republicans are demanding answers.

More than 40 Republican U.S. senators sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland Thursday requesting the release of the Durham report, the long-awaited results of an investigation into the controversial origins of the FBI investigation into Russian collusion.