Why We’re Praying for John Durham

Special counsel John Durham arrives at federal court in Washington on May 18, 2022. (Teng Chen/The Epoch Times)

Commentary

Sometimes I think, to conjure the old spiritual, that special counsel John Durham has “the whole world in his hands.” By that, I obviously don’t mean Mahalia Jackson’s transcendent version that could make the most adamant atheist drop to his knees.

In Durham’s case, it’s considerably more secular. Nevertheless, the special counsel is dealing with something extraordinarily significant.

He holds in his hands the future of democratic government under the law, republican (small r) or otherwise, as we know it, if not forever, at least for the foreseeable future.

Although he’s been accused of going slowly—how could it have been otherwise, really, with COVID-19 lockdowns, even though they were unjustified—so far he’s doing a remarkable job. He has demonstrated how the colossal and pernicious lie that Donald Trump was in collusion with Russia originated with people working for the Hillary Clinton campaign (via a made-up connection to a Russian bank) that was approved and later promulgated by Clinton herself.

Some of this renewed clarity is because of Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook actually telling the truth in court about what happened, whether for fear of perjury or because of some iota of basic morality.

When you look in the eyes of Michael Sussmann, the onetime Perkins Coie law partner, whose charge of having lied to the FBI has instigated this serial unmasking, you see something far worse than the proverbial deer in the headlights. I see an individual clinging to some semblance of doing this for a “greater good,” that his ends did justify whatever bending of the means he found necessary.

While this all may not be treason in the technical or legal sense, it’s certainly as treasonous as any behavior that has come from the political class of either party in any of our lifetimes and, although completely ignored by a legacy media whose culpability in it was nearly total, vastly more serious than the Watergate scandal that they still obsess about.

In this case, the attention of the country—indeed the world, including our adversaries—was riveted, and the presidency of newly elected President Trump was tarnished and nearly upended for a supposed crime that never occurred. Indeed, it’s the Clinton people and their myriad accomplices that committed the real crime—the real Russian collusion—in this ultimate case of projection.

In other words, the whole world watched a massively public display in the United States of something that anyone with a modicum of intelligence would have realized almost immediately was a complete miscarriage of justice. Whether or not you believe in American Exceptionalism, the country that almost since its inception has been the envy of the world was busy stomping on its own institutions and bringing itself to the edge of being unrecognizable. Could our enemies have asked for more?

What will happen now? It may be, even though there’s clear email evidence in which the defendant assured then-FBI General Counsel James Baker that he was working as an independent and not a Hillary campaign operative, that given the deep-blue District of Columbia jury, Sussman will be acquitted. All he needs is one juror. Having witnessed the O.J. Simpson trial, it’s easy to see how such forms of jury nullification occur. (Have you noticed that no one has come forward in the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman—not even from the “world of Faye Resnick,” as Johnny Cochran put it?)

And for those who might think Sussmann lying to the FBI is a small thing, remember that he is then lying to all of us. We pay for the existence of the FBI, such as it is, to find the truth and keep us safe—at least we thought we did. And that’s not to mention what then flowed from that lie—the Trump–Russia investigation and so forth.

But back to what will really happen now. It seems that Durham has his eyes on larger prizes than Sussmann. Ironically, it may not matter all that much whether Sussmann is convicted. The door has been opened to explore the “myriad accomplices” referred to several paragraphs above and their activities.

The question is, will the buck stop with Hillary or will she be thrown under the bus so the other denizens of our political class from the FBI to the White House can skate?

Now we learn, from the testimony of FBI agent Curtis Heide in the Sussmann trial, that the FBI is conducting an “internal investigation” of Heide for not including exculpatory information in its investigation of Trump, called “Crossfire Hurricane.” (As a sidelight, isn’t it pathetic the would-be hipsters in the FBI named their investigation after a Rolling Stones song?)

Of course, the FBI conducting an “internal investigation” looks about as legitimate as the KGB conducting a similar investigation. The word whitewash is far too weak.

We humble citizens, or “normals” as Kurt Schlichter puts it, have been living under a government in which Sussmann—although just another $800-per-hour (from testimony) Beltway lawyer—is a useful symbol. Lying is the way of the Washington Deep State and its most powerful people. To them, it’s almost like breathing. Lying for their own benefit and those of their friends are the respirators from which they'll never get off.

In March, the New York Post called many of these individuals to account in its editorial “Spies who lie: 51 ‘intelligence’ experts refuse to apologize for discrediting true Hunter Biden story.”

“They are the supposed nonpartisan group of top spies looking out for the best interest of the nation,” the article reads.

“But the 51 former ‘intelligence’ officials who cast doubt on the Post’s Hunter Biden laptop stories in a public letter really were just desperate to get Joe Biden elected president. And more than a year later, even after their Deep State sabotage has repeatedly been shown to be a lie, they refuse to own up to how they undermined an election.

“The officials, including CNN pundit and professional fabricator James Clapper—a man who was nearly charged for perjury for lying to Congress—signed a letter saying that the laptop ‘has the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.’”

While not directly in Durham’s purview—although who knows, since so much these days is interconnected—this is the kind of thing the special counsel may be calling to America’s, and the world’s, attention.

It’s literally in his hands to steer our ship of state back to the rule of law. If not him, who? Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz walked up to the edge of truth in his report and then did an about-face before making the obvious conclusions, as if concerned that his Deep State card would be revoked.

The legacy media, so many of whom are deeply implicated in these lies themselves (I worked with some of them and can’t even be near them now, let alone talk to them), will do everything they can to hide or obfuscate this information.

It’s our job, every one of us, to disseminate it—factually and with a minimum of rancor—as widely as possible as the truth emerges.

We can also pray for Durham. Another verse from Mahalia won’t hurt.

A Final Point

To illustrate just how bad things have become, one of those directly implicated as a liar in the Durham investigation, in case you missed it, is currently our national security adviser, managing the Ukraine situation and presumably keeping an eye on the $40 billion that U.S. taxpayers are now sending the Eastern European nation.

From law professor Jonathan Turley:

“For her part, [Hillary] Clinton not only approved using the Alpha Bank claim but helped to portray it as an established fact, tweeting: ‘Computer scientists have apparently uncovered a covert server linking the Trump Organization to a Russian-based bank.’

“That claim was then further amplified by one of her campaign advisers, Jake Sullivan, who now serves as President Biden’s national security adviser.

“‘This could be the most direct link yet between Donald Trump and Moscow,’ Sullivan declared at the time. ‘Computer scientists have uncovered a covert server linking the Trump Organization to a Russian-based bank.’

“Sullivan added that he could ‘only assume federal authorities will now explore this direct connection between Trump and Russia as part of their existing probe into Russia’s meddling in our elections.’”

Clearly, Sullivan got his wish.

As I said, pray for Durham.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.