Moral of the Durham trials: Jurors won't convict sources if the FBI wanted their bait

justthenews.com ^ | 10/18/2022 | john solomon

[bitt]

News Analysis: With two acquittals, DC-area juries refuse to referee whether informants or FBI were more to blame for Russia collusion ruse. Is a Church Committee-like probe next?

Special Counsel John Durham made a calculated decision to transform his only criminal trials — of Clinton lawyer Michael Sussmann and Steele dossier source Igor Danchenko — into forums for telling the story of the FBI's pursuit of the unsubstantiated Russia collusion narrative.

From pretrial motions and brutal cross-examinations of FBI witnesses to his parting words at the Danchenko trial, Durham telegraphed his disdain for the FBI's behavior to jurors in the courts of both law and public opinion.

The jury might very well conclude the FBI mishandled the Russia case, the veteran prosecutor declared Monday in his closing argument. "The government is not here to defend the FBI's performance in these matters," he added. Such comments gave license to jurors to acquit, as they did in the end.

Before it was over, Durham dropped bombshell after bombshell, with most landing on the FBI rather than the defendants:

Hillary Clinton personally approved sharing the Russia collusion narrative against Trump in fall 2016 even though her campaign wasn't sure it was true, former campaign manager Robby Mook testified.

The FBI offered Christopher Steele a whopping $1 million if he could prove the sensational allegations in his dossier, but he didn't, FBI witnesses testified.

The FBI included allegations from the Steele dossier in its FISA application to spy on the Trump campaign even though it hadn't verified a single element of the dossier, an FBI analyst testified.

...more

[bitt]

p

[Chauncey Gardiner]

Watergate had less evidence...

[Paladin2]

No reasonable prosecutor would prosecute a case against the FIB.

Guilty as sin; Free as a bird.

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

I think this is the money quote: (of this article, not necessarily of reality)

“Special Counsel John Durham made a calculated decision to transform his only criminal trials — of Clinton lawyer Michael Sussmann and Steele dossier source Igor Danchenko — into forums for telling the story of the FBI’s pursuit of the unsubstantiated Russia collusion narrative.”

Which is either incompetence or a deliberate game-throw. The FBI wasn’t on trial.

[House Atreides]

DC Area Jury! Did anyone expect a guilty verdict?

[Bratch]

Igor Danchenko Found Not Guilty on all Four Counts of Lying to the FBI

October 18, 2022 | Sundance | 204 Comments

Igor Danchenko was a well-known fabricator of (dis)information long before the FBI made the purposeful decision to enlist him in their Trump targeting efforts.  Specifically because Danchenko had no moral compass to the truth he was particularly useful for the FBI effort.  This was the big problem for John Durham in prosecuting Danchenko for material lies the FBI knew from the outset were false.

How does the same DOJ who used the lies for their political purposes, then prosecute the liar for the false information?  That was always the structural flaw in any case brought by Durham.  As a result, the trial was not so much about the lying Danchenko as it was about the lying FBI and their use of Danchenko.

A jury found Igor Danchenko not guilty on four counts of lying to the FBI, on four occasions. 

(1) Danchenko told FBI agents he received a phone call in late July 2016 Sergei Millian. However, Danchenko knew he had never received a call from Millian.

(2) Danchenko gave a false statement to FBI agents that he “was under the impression” that the late July 2016 call was from Millian.

(3) Danchenko falsely stated to FBI agents that he believed he spoke to Millian on the phone on more than one occasion. And

(4) Danchenko lied that he “believed he has spoken to [Millian] on the telephone,” when Danchenko well knew he had never spoken to Millian.

The FBI didn’t care about the details of the lies that were told to them; the lies served a purpose.  The FBI purpose was to use the Steele Dossier as the foundation for a fraudulent all-encompassing search warrant against the Trump campaign and presidency, using Carter Page.  That construct was always the motive of the DOJ/FBI use of Danchenko, Chris Steele and the infamous dossier that gave the DOJ the patina they needed for the FISA application.

The trial itself showed how corrupt the FBI and DOJ were in this scheme by:

A) offering Chris Steele $1 million for proof of the dossier content. 

B) By making Danchenko a confidential human source for two years to shield him, “sources and methods”, from investigative inquiry.

C) By paying Danchenko $200,000 for his time as a useful tool and confidential human source.

As noted in the summary of the trial by Technofog:

[…] “What is more important is that which informs our understanding of the Trump/Russia investigation and the FBI/DOJ/Mueller misconduct that sparked Crossfire Hurricane and continued through the Mueller investigation. That information was revelatory.

The institutions were on trial alongside Danchenko, with Durham recognizing in closing arguments that “the FBI mishandled the investigation at issue.” And the institutions rightly suffered.

Danchenko might have been spared, but is there any reasonable doubt as to the FBI’s incompetence – and guilt?  (read more)

As CTH has stated from the outset of the entire scheme, the problem is institutional corruption.  The personnel, administration, leadership and participants, within the DOJ, DOJ-NSD and FBI are corrupt.

Institutions do not become corrupt by themselves.  People within the institutions are the cause of the corruption, and every person attached to the Trump-Russia investigation – including Robert Mueller, are corrupt.  It was a scheme in 2016, which became a coverup operation in 2017, which became an explosive institutional problem in 2019 which Bill Barr was trying to manage.

• Institutional Preservation – Bill Barr applied the Bondo to the rusted framework of the DOJ and FBI, and John Durham applied the spray paint by not targeting anyone inside the justice department.

John Durham only focused, perhaps because he was only allowed to focus, on the external participants to the originating schemes.  One thing is clear, John Durham never once mentioned the corrupt nature of the Robert Mueller and Andrew Weissmann coverup operation.

Danchenko was represented by the same lawyers representing Hillary Clinton because at the heart of Danchenko’s intent was an effort to support Hillary Clinton in the 2016 October surprise they were constructing using fabricated claims of Trump colluding with Russia to win the election.

ALEXANDRIA, Virginia — A jury has found Russian national Igor Danchenko not guilty on four false statements charges, declining to convict him for the allegations that the main source of British ex-spy Christopher Steele had lied to the FBI about his sourcing for the discredited anti-Trump dossier.

The jury reached their decision on Tuesday after less than two days of deliberations, delivering John Durham another defeat in his long-running investigation of the Trump-Russia investigators, after the special counsel lost another false statements case against a Clinton campaign lawyer in May. (more)

Washington DC protects itself.

[griswold3]

I’m thinking the jurors believe Trump colluded with Putin The FIB was just doing their job

[AnthonySoprano]

.
You see none of the hallmarks of Federal Prosecutions.

No Raids. No flipping. No pressure.

With Trump associates, they argued to Judges certain defenses couldn’t be used (multiple defenses), they got FISAs, they laid traps, they went to a secret court and had the Statute of Limitations paused. They investigated family members.

.

[AnthonySoprano]

.
Zero Raids … says it all.

[Gay State Conservative]

No...the lesson here is that a DC jury won't convict a Rat Party hack or any of his/her co-conspirators.

[gov_bean_ counter]

Bump

[Flick Lives]

Filthy rats protect their own. The FBI can get away with murder, and it has.

[Major Matt Mason]

So, is this winning? Asking for a friend.

[Quentin Quarantino]

The Elites are running America like the Mafia ran Jersey.

[KTM rider]

The absurdity of this entire four year long coup that culminated in surgical election fraud defies logic and reason.

This idiotic show trail fits the deep state M.O. perfectly and John Durham is an accessory to the overthrow of a legitimately elected president

lucky for them it was a successful coup and there was no real "armed insurrection" to counter the coup, only a fake false flag act Jan 6 to seal the deal

[buwaya]

Given the court, with a DC jury, he knew he wasn’t going to get a conviction. I think he did what he could to get some of the FBI evidence into the public record.

It IS now in the public record, for what its worth. It is available to use to affect public opinion about the legitimacy of the FBI, and by implication everything else in DC.

[TBP]

He did lie, and Durham prettyk much proved it, but his exposure of the FBI's misconduct reduced his chances to convict Danchenko.

It was actually a brilliant plan by the Russians -- use one of their operatives to plant a story that they were actually trying to help the candidate they were trying to hurt, and vice versa.

Kudos to John Durham for exposing the truth of ‘Russiagate’

[Dogbert41]

I know it seems like there’s no Justice on this earth but have patience and faith! This is nothing new on earth. But we’ll all have to give an account to the Lord God, King of Kings. Ñobody gets away with anything. NOBODY!

[steve8714]

Depopulate DC.