By Scott Day
When you see a headline about John Durham, the overwhelming curiosity is “when is the report coming”!?
The now famed and one of only few public pictures of John Durham.
Work on this report by John Durham, the US Attorney in Connecticut, appointed by former Attorney General William Barr, has been active since the Spring of 2019 following the completion of Robert Mueller’s investigation into the alleged ‘Trump and Russia collusion’ during the 2016 Presidential campaign. People were interested in this story, not only due to the political climate in our country, but because the investigation itself touches all departments of Federal government and has enormous implications for the American People.
The interest really heated-up after CNN reported in October of 2019 that the Durham investigation has “officially become a criminal investigation”, and that this allowed “subpoena for witness testimony and documents, to convene a grand jury, and to file criminal charges”. The public wanted accountability, and ‘the Durham report’ was a possible realization of testimony being presented about a presidential candidate in this country being spied-on by our own politically weaponized justice system. That ‘intelligence operation’ was also said to be plagued by errors and malfeasance. Americans love our drama, and we were looking forward to it!
Whatever the report would reveal, everyone was waiting.
Taking a step back in looking at the situation about ‘the still pending Durham report’, it seems like we were strung along by Barr since the inception of being notified about the investigation. The American People had a reasonable expectation for the report to come out before the 2020 election, after all, since it was first reported by the NY Times in May of 2019 that Durham was to review the origins of the Russia Inquiry by the FBI.
The initial implication from Barr was that Durham would be finished with the investigation by the summer of 2020, which would give some time to present the report and digest before the most important election in history. This seemed consistent as Barr, on June 21st, said that the “investigation was moving along rapidly”, and again in July Barr indicated that “he won’t rule out the Durham report in advance of the 2020 presidential election” when he was before the House Judiciary Committee. July of that year also featured Durham petitioning the British courts to have Steele (of the Steele Dossier) hand over evidence, pertaining to the investigation.
It seemed like things were moving along indeed, even though there were only a few months remaining until election day. Although there were various mentions of actions taken by Durham throughout 2020 reported in the mainstream news, Durham’s report wasn’t the focus of any news cycle. There were rumors here and there about what Mr. Durham was doing and what the information found could lead to, but the most eventful year in American history was unfolding before us. This story was just one of many, in a period where the US and the world were inundated with information. It was not as important as other news stories at the time, yet some were still hoping for ‘The Durham Report’ to be released before November 2020. We know how that turned out. No report. The sound of crickets, …perhaps.
Disappointment with the pace of the pending findings has affected both anticipation and expectation levels of anything meaningful coming from the investigation.
One shred of hope for people for people supporting the investigation, since the mainstream media was reporting that Donald Trump had lost the election, was that on December 1st, 2020, Barr made public his appointment of Durham as Special Counsel to help fend off an upcoming new administration. If Barr, however, had not done so, I think everyone would be safe to assume that the investigation would have just ‘went away’.
Since that time, ‘The Durham Report’ has become almost an ‘urban legend’, akin to ‘John Durham is the political boogeyman out to get the traitors’, intimating perhaps, it will not actually lead to any satisfying results and is just more political theater, even though it is an active and pending investigation. The rumor mill and urban legend status could have also been derived due to the nature of Durham himself. John Durham rarely, if ever, makes public remarks or speaks with reporters. He does not have any articles nor books published. He was confirmed by the Senate, which was unanimous, and is interesting to note that his appointment not only received no backlash, but was almost universally praised from all manners of the political spectrum.
Who is this ‘mystery man’ and how can you even pull that off nowadays?
Doubt about the status of the report definitely ruled, however, as sentiment shifted from When? to If? This was apparent as you would see headlines pertaining to the story describing that the report is ‘still coming’, ‘will it be made public?’, or just plain old where is the Durham report?’. I am sure many feel that it will never see the light of day.
A recent spark to the story, though, in mid-July 2021, someone has come forward about the report, and he is not an ‘anonymous source’. The ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, Devin Nunes (R-CA), has officially gone on the record stating that he “still expects” John Durham to publish his report. Not only does he expect the report to be made public, but Nunes also has hinted that people may go to prison as a result of the findings, potentially including former top Obama officials, after claiming to have seen various elements of the report’s contents. Nunes also has claimed that there have been over 14 different criminal referrals within the context of what has progressed thus far. This recent statement from Barr makes it seem like a rare, if not the only, mention from a public official as to the status of the Durham investigation.
William Barr in October 2020, correctly advocated for the American public to be informed upon release of the report by ordering that Durham “to the maximum extent possible and consistent with the law and policies and practices of the Department of Justice, shall submit to the Attorney General a final report, and such interim reports as he deems appropriate, in a form that will permit public dissemination".
The current administration has signaled that they agree with Barr’s order of any interim report and the final report being made public, when Joe Gaeta, the Deputy Assistant Attorney General said that portion of Barr’s order had his department’s backing. However there has been no indication from anyone as to the timeline for a possible wrap-up of the investigation.
The Attorney General, Merrick Garland, indicated to the Senate Judiciary Committee in February that he had no commitment to protect Durham's investigation or make any eventual report public, however, Garland also said he didn't have any reason to think it wasn't ‘the right move’ to allow Durham to continue his work.
It sounds like both sides of the political aisle are sticking to the premise, as Nunes put it, “shouldn’t be corrupted”.
Addressing the ‘where’ to the status of the investigation still does not answer the question as to why. Why has the investigation taken this long and how can the American people not naturally think that the reasons for the lengthy investigation are political? I do not have the answer to that question, but logic would dictate that perhaps the more information the investigation uncovered, the more the scope of the work and methodology would need to adapt to be able to incorporate the new info for the final report. This often takes time. Perhaps Durham’s ‘tasks have tripled’ since he began the investigation? This is only speculation as there has not been anything definitive shared in an official capacity, as of late.
Until …or should we say ‘if’, we receive that ‘public dissemination’ that Barr was hopefully passionate about and that the current administration claims to support, these questions remain.
Remember everyone seems to focus on what Durham’s doing, when the report will be out, and what (if) action will be taken. Why? Well, that is one question I can answer. Because the focus on this pending report and what it could mean for our country comes from the underlying question that I think we all feel at this time, and that is:
How can we trust that there will be any accountability against those who broke the law?
We at the RedPill Project will be following this story closely and update any reports in relation to ‘The Durham Report’ as they develop.
(sites used for reference when writing this article)
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· https://welovetrump.com/2021/07/15/nunes-john-durham-report-is-still-coming-obama-officials-will-go-to-prison/
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