Durham Reveals Regime Rot in Failures and Successes
Danchenko case further exposed Deep State corruption, but that it keeps going unpunished guarantees still greater scandals to come
Durham Special Counsel Revealed Regime Rot—in Failures and Successes
With the unceremonious conclusion of Russiagate special counsel John Durham's third and likely final case against Steele dossier fabulist Igor Danchenko—the second in a row in which Durham failed to earn a conviction—many on the Left and some on the Right have declared his probe a dud.
Durham's detractors crow that he couldn't indict a ham sandwich, and disingenuously use this point to drive the narrative there was no "there" there in arguably the greatest scandal in American history. His champions may feel the same, only lamenting rather than cheering that Team Durham couldn't indict that ham sandwich—considering the bit players he prosecuted—and that, moreover, the special counsel failed to pursue the biggest fish who so gravely betrayed our republican system from within the government itself.
A sober analysis of the special counsel's performance—pending any final report—justifies Durham's supporters' despondency. But such supporters ought to be despondent not solely due to Durham's doings, but due to the state of our ruling regime itself—the rot of which the special counsel, in both his failures and successes, intentionally and unintentionally exposed.
I’ve got the story in a new piece at Newsweek.
As I write in part, the special counsel’s activity to date raises two theories:
The first theory is that the fix was in all along. Durham was, and is, essentially a captured element of the Deep State, who would never hold it to account—how can Department of Justice officials be trusted to take on their own institution over such a widespread scandal running to its top ranks? Under this theory, Durham would have been installed just for "optics," given that the evidence revealed about the Russiagate scandal even pre-Durham was already so overwhelming.
The second theory is that Durham did the best he could given the severe constraints. This was a scandal that might be understood to be "too big to prosecute," what with how many "made men" of the regime were implicated, in such massive malfeasance, in pursuit of a cause deemed as righteous as that of taking down Trump—and relatedly, that even with slam dunk cases, one apparently cannot win on the regime's home D.C.-area turf. Therefore, Durham could do no more than bring cases only indirectly aimed at their named, outside targets, in order to illuminate the sordid inside game, and perhaps pen a final report spelling it out more clearly.
Regardless of the "why," the special counsel probe has proven sadly revealing, in both the depth and breadth of the corruption and lawlessness it exposed, as well as its inability or unwillingness to go further and bring to heel the most powerful perpetrators of the gravest governmental abuses.
Read the whole thing here.