For almost a year and a half, John Durham has been a special prosecutor, which is not a long time, but enough for a drumbeat to begin that he was showing small progress against his orders to examine the origins of the debunked Trump-Russia collusion narrative that convulsed a presidency. His few indictments so far have been feeding a fear among Donald Trump’s supporters that elites higher up the stack are going to get away with their chicanery, as they have been directed against peripheral players.
These perceptions were providing the Biden Department of Justice (DOJ) with increasing political top cover to shut down the special prosecutor’s office as an unproductive, politics-driven exercise in futility that is wasting taxpayer dollars, which is the main problem for Durham, and if he were to be terminated, the American people might not even push back much since no one knew anything about whether his investigation was going well or not, per the op-ed article.
Durham’s investigation has already been undercut once by Attorney General Merrick Garland by taking steps to rehabilitate the reputation of fired FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, who is a key figure in the origins of the Trump-Russia collusion debacle. The Biden DOJ is not supporting the goals of Mr. Durham.
Durham revealed the outlines of a corrupt conspiracy by operatives linked to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. The exposed conspiracy allegedly made a contrived, fraudulent and shocking attempt to entice the FBI and CIA to use their powers against the rival Trump campaign and presidency.
Two effects appeared from this recent filing by Durham. First, he has now made any decision by the president or attorney general to dump him much more difficult to undertake. Second, Durham has signaled to the American people that his investigation has legs, despite perceptions of plodding inertia. So he has provided hope that accountability in D.C. actually might happen.