Barr and Durham Covered for Trump: They Colluded to Protect Him from Crimes Reported by Italy

Former AG Barr; Special Counsel Durham; former President Trump

(Criminal Trio it Seems)

Former Trump AG William Barr and his “Russia-Russia follow-up” S/C John Durham both should be on DOJ’s hot pursuit list with this story from the New Civil Rights Movement with their headline:

“Deliberately Deceived the Nation: Legal Experts Stunned by Jaw-Dropping Report on How Barr and Durham Protected Trump”

Legal experts are now weighing in on the bombshell, massive months-long reporting from The New York Times that reveals, among several previously unknown allegations, that then-AG Barr, his Special Counsel, John Durham were handed apparent evidence of suspicious financial acts by Trump. and they proceeded to create a false public narrative that Durham’s investigation found evidence of “suspicious financial dealings” related to Trump, suggesting it was on the part of the FBI, not the president, in order to protect the president.

The Times reveals: “On one of Barr’s and Durham’s trips to Europe, according to people familiar with the matter, Italian officials — while denying any role in setting off the Russia investigation, unexpectedly offered a potentially explosive tip linking Trump to certain suspected financial crimes.”

The Times added: “Barr and Durham never disclosed that their inquiry expanded in the fall of 2019, based on a tip from Italian officials, to include criminal investigation into suspicious financial dealings related to Trump.”

More related specifics here:  The NY Times Report also Revealed that Barr’s Special Counsel (Durham) Opened a “Secret Financial Crimes Probe Into Trump” but Never Moved to Prosecuted

“Durham never filed charges, and it remains unclear what level of an investigation it was, what steps he took, what he learned, and whether anyone at the White House ever found out. The extraordinary fact that Durham opened a criminal investigation that included scrutinizing Trump still has remained secret.”

That is until now as legal experts weigh in and sound off:

1. Harvard Law Professor Emeritus Laurence Tribe, a constitutional law expert who literally wrote the book on the U.S. Constitution, calls the Times’ report “jaw-dropping” adding: “When Durham unexpectedly found evidence of crimes committed by rather than against Trump, he and Barr deliberately deceived the nation into thinking the opposite! This deep dive by the NY Times is as jaw-dropping as anything I’ve read in the past decade.”

2. Law professor and former President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF) Sherrilyn Ifill, one of TIME’s 2021 most influential people in the world, accused Barr of “gaslighting” the public and she implored: “Every line of this article must be read. It is horrifying breaches of professional ethics, misuse of DOJ investigative resources, and deliberate lies to gaslight the public. A grotesque perversion of the appropriate role of Attorney General.”

3. Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance, the well-known MSNBC legal contributor and professor of law, also calls it “jaw dropping,” adding: “Lots here including an explanation of why Durham’s colleague resigned: under pressure from Barr to release an ‘interim’ report damaging Clinton & the FBI as the election drew near, Durham had a draft prepared that wasn’t factual.”

4. Andrew Weissman, the former General Counsel of the FBI who spent 20 years at DOJ, including working under Special Counsel Robert Mueller, calls Barr “corrupt” and asks: “Can anyone really be surprised by this? Barr was just so corrupt and so corrupted the DOJ.”

5. MSNBC legal analyst Jill Wine-Banks, a former Watergate prosecutor and the first woman to serve as General Counsel of the Army was troubled by the picture the NY Times painted of how close Barr and Durham were, when special counsels are supposed to have great autonomy said via Twitter: “Even more troubling than Barr and Durham frequently having drinks and discussing the investigation is the fact that the only crime they discovered on their foreign trip was Italian Intel about crimes by Trump. I want to know the status of that investigation!”

Wine-Banks then also pointed to House Republicans’ new committee investigating what they claim is “weaponization” of the federal government, saying: “Barr’s relationship with Durham, his pressure on him to reach a certain result, and their failure to follow up on Trump’s crime revealed during the investigation is what weaponization of the DOJ really looks like — not what Republicans want to investigate now.”

Some legal experts lament that despite the bombshells in The Times’ report, it appears nothing will come of it – certainly nothing from the House Republicans.

For example:

Former Associate White House Counsel Ian Bassin sardonically asks: “Surely McCarthy and Jim Jordan’s new Select Committee on ‘the Weaponization of the Federal Government’ will focus on this story and the actions of Barr, Durham, and Trump. Surely, right? Right?”

Pete Strzok, who spent 26 years at the FBI including as Deputy Assistant Director of the Bureau’s Counterintelligence Division, and led the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 United States election, speaks from experience as he wrote: “I can see Barr allowing the stunning amount of craziness (a gentle choice of word) described in this article. But does anyone in the current OAG or ODAG care about this? Durham has reported to AG Garland for twenty two (22) months now.”

Weissman added separately pointing to The Times article saying: “This is all about the Trump weaponization of the DOJ – but we know that the House R’s won’t give a damn about it.”

My 2 Cents: Now we wait to see what AG Garland will or will not do or pursue this major development.

All the while we will watch and listen to this new GOP run House spew tons of floor speeches about good government and how they are going to fix things by pursuing everyone around them except themselves as usual … oops!!!

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