When a special counsel heads up a commission to investigate the findings of a previous commission, with negative and politicized motivations blatant, what can the outcome be but a waste of time and taxpayer money and hugely destructive outcomes for untold numbers of innocent people? The report in question takes up 306 pages, and this is a large-type version, and approximately 159,000 words. Headed up by Special Counsel John H. Durham, it is entitled "Report on Matters Related to Intelligence Activities and Investigations Arising Out of the 2016 Presidential Campaigns." It has been described as "a Trump-friendly probe that weaponized law enforcement against Trump's opponents and absolved Trump supporters from their collusion with Russia to tilt the 2016 U.S. presidential election their way." Alternet reports that "The investigation concluded last May with underwhelming results: A single guilty plea from a little-known FBI lawyer, resulting in probation, and two acquittals at trial by juries."
Andrew Kreig, attorney, activist, and well-known investigator, has been following the less-than-brilliant career of special counsel Durham, former Trump-appointed U.S. attorney for Connecticut, for more than a decade. He is not surprised that in the course of Durham's investigation, "[F]our federal judges have vacated on grounds of prosecution misconduct convictions that had been won by Durham and his close colleagues."
In his newly published The Completely Annotated Durham "Russiagate" Report: A Corrupt, Cruel Fraud, Andrew dissects Durham's 175,000 words with an introduction that gives the complete background of Durham and his crass motivations, adds the complete, unedited, annotated report itself, and follows up with an appendix that includes a bibliography of all publications and official reports at all related to Durham's activities as well as thumbnail bios of all figures involved, including Steve Bannon, James A. Baker, Christopher Steele, Michael D. Cohen, James B. Comey Jr., Marc Elias, Michael T. Flynn, and many others. Notable among them, and included right after the first thumbnail, of Trump, is former Attorney General Bill Barr, chief instigator and supporter of Durham's thoroughly destructive efforts that possibly wrought untold damage to this country, including Trump's election.*
In one summary of his blockbuster revelations, Andrew's findings "show that his [Durham's] zeal to protect his Trump patrons and smear Hillary Clinton leads him to keep scapegoating targets absolved by juries. Worse, [Durham] cherry-picks evidence to avoid documenting serious threats to U.S. elections from Russians and their nefarious U.S. allies."
Andrew leaves nothing to the imagination. Durham's performance at the recent House Judiciary Committee hearing on his report was evasive and ill-informed at best, lacking credibility and hugely disappointing fellow partisans who had hoped for refutation of the Mueller committee's findings. The conclusion was supposed to be that "a Clinton 'Plan' hoked-up a false 'Russiagate' scandal whereby Trump and Russia were falsely accused of collusion or other improper activities regarding the 2016 election and beyond."
Why has the public not been better informed about this outrage sooner? Andrew has meticulously documented all MSM and other coverage of all related events as another section of his voluminous appendix. But more than that, as he writes, the sweeping takeover of the media by a few billionaire conglomerates has eliminated many vehicles that would have reached far more of the reading public--for example, small-town publications like the Marion County Record, recently invaded by police in a blatant violation of its First Amendment rights.
A judicious reading of the book and all the references it supplies is a sine qua non. Reading Andrew's full opus is a PhD program in areas the MSM has neglected or concealed from the public in journalism, politics, ethics, and history that must be disseminated. His passionate pursuit of justice and integrity is updated daily at his website justice-integrity.org and most evident in his previous books Presidential Puppetry and Spiked: How Chain Management Corrupted America's Oldest Newspaper.
Will Andrew's encyclopedic and heroic efforts to reach more people succeed with this publication? That's up to all of us. Get the word out. It's available at https://www.amazon.com/dp/0988672871.
*It is noteworthy that Nora Dannehy, a deputy to Durham, stepped down from her position in the DOJ in 2020, conscience-stricken, she said, to be associated with former Attorney General Bill Barr's handling of the Trump-Russia report. Barr had helped lead the Department of Justice in efforts to "press her and Durham to act in the service of Trump's reelection," according to the Connecticut Mirror. Dannehy has since been "fast-tracked" by Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont to become a justice of that state's supreme court and been approved by a committee of the General Assembly. This despite her work "whitewashing the US attorney firing scandal of 2006 that left in place those who prosecuted Siegelman and so many other progressives," according to Kreig.
The book's updated hardcover launch is planned for an Oct. 4 dinner at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, where the author serves on its Freedom of the Press Committee, featuring speakers describing the global importance of well-functioning justice and media.
