Trump's world....

[DBP66]

What we know about Trump’s scheduled deposition Wednesday in defamation case

 

Julia Shapero

Tue, October 18, 2022 at 5:00 PM

 

 

Former President Trump is scheduled to be deposed Wednesday in a defamation case brought by a woman who has accused the former president of raping her in the 1990s, after a federal judge rejected his latest effort to delay last week.

Here’s what we know so far:

Trump has repeatedly sought to delay

Trump has repeatedly sought to delay the defamation case since its inception. It has been nearly three years since writer E. Jean Carroll sued the former president for defamation in November 2019 for denying her rape allegations and accusing her of lying.

Trump immediately sought to dismiss the defamation suit but was rejected by a New York state judge. His attorney then asked the court to delay the case, while a separate defamation case against Trump proceeded. The court again rejected Trump’s request.

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In September 2020, the Department of Justice moved to take over the case, claiming that Trump was a government employee and his statements about Carroll were made in his official capacity as president. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan rejected the DOJ’s effort to intervene and moved the case forward in late 2020.

The Justice Department appealed the ruling and asked the court to delay the defamation case while it appealed. The case sat on hold for nearly a year before Kaplan denied Trump’s request for a delay in September 2021 and began moving the case forward again.

In March 2022, Kaplan also rejected Trump’s attempt to countersue Carroll, dismissing it as “bad-faith” litigation.

Earlier this month, Carroll’s attorneys told the court that they were seeking Trump’s deposition on Oct. 19, arguing that it was a “more practical” way to get information than documents. Days later, Trump again asked for a delay in the case, including his deposition.

Kaplan rejected Trump’s request to delay again last Wednesday, setting the former president up to be deposed this week. Kaplan noted in Wednesday’s ruling that “Mr. Trump has litigated this case since it began in 2019 with the effect and probably the purpose of delaying it.”

Trump has seen some success on appeal

As the initial lawsuit has proceeded at the district court level, Trump’s legal team has seen some success on its appeal to have the Justice Department take over the lawsuit.

A federal appeals court in New York ruled late last month that presidents are government employees and can receive immunity for claims arising from their official duties.

However, the appeals court asked the D.C. Court of Appeals to rule on whether Trump was acting outside the scope of his presidential duties when he allegedly defamed Carroll. This second issue is key to determining whether the U.S. government could replace Trump as the defendant in the case.

Trump avoided deposition in similar case 

After battling Trump for almost five years on similar allegations, former “Apprentice” contestant Summer Zervos ended her defamation lawsuit against Trump in November 2021, with neither side receiving monetary compensation. Just one month earlier, it had seemed possible that Trump would be forced to sit for a deposition.

Zervos initially filed the defamation suit against Trump in January 2017, after the former president denied her allegations that he kissed and groped Zervos without her consent while she was a contestant on his show in 2007.

Trump’s legal team followed a similar playbook, making numerous attempts to dismiss or delay the defamation case. After Trump left the White House in 2021, the case appeared poised to move forward, with the likelihood of a deposition looming.

However, Zervos dropped the lawsuit several months later, without much explanation. Her lawyer simply said in a statement that Zervos “no longer wishes to litigate” against Trump and “has secured the right to speak freely about her experience.”

[DBP66]

Durham strikes out once again....wonk...wonk.

Analyst acquitted at trial over discredited Trump dossier

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  Analyst acquitted at trial over discredited Trump dossier

  FILE - Igor Danchenko leaves Albert V. Bryan United States Courthouse in Alexandria, Va., Nov. 4, 2021. A jury has heard closing arguments in Danchenko's trial, the think tank analyst accused of lying to the FBI about his role in the creation of a discredited dossier about former President Donald Trump. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, file)

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  Trump Russia Probe

  FILE - Igor Danchenko, a think tank analyst accused of lying to the FBI about his role in the creation of a discredited dossier about former President Donald Trump, leaves Albert V. Bryan United States Courthouse in Alexandria, Va., on Nov. 4, 2021. A jury on Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2022, acquitted Danchenko on all counts. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)

  ASSOCIATED PRESS

MATTHEW BARAKAT

Tue, October 18, 2022 at 4:30 PM

 

 

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A jury on Tuesday acquitted a think tank analyst accused of lying to the FBI about his role in the creation of a discredited dossier about former President Donald Trump.

The case against Igor Danchenko was the third and possibly final case brought by Special Counsel John Durham as part of his probe into how the FBI conducted its own investigation into allegations of collusion between the 2016 Trump campaign and the Kremlin.

The first two cases ended in an acquittal and a guilty plea with a sentence of probation.

Danchenko betrayed no emotion as the verdict was read. His wife wiped away tears after the clerk read the final “not guilty" to the four counts he faced.

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Danchenko didn't comment after the hearing, but his lawyer, Stuart Sears, spoke briefly to reporters, saying, “We’ve known all along that Mr. Danchenko is innocent. We’re happy now that the American public knows that as well.”

The jury reached its verdict after roughly nine hours of deliberations over two days. One juror, Joel Greene of Vienna, Virginia, said there were no real disputes among the jury and that jurors just wanted to be thorough in reviewing the four counts.

The acquittal marked a significant setback for Durham. Despite hopes by Trump supporters that the prosecutor would uncover a sweeping conspiracy within the FBI and other agencies to derail his candidacy, the three-year investigation failed to produce evidence that met those expectations. The sole conviction — an FBI lawyer admitted altering an email related to the surveillance of a former Trump aide — was for conduct uncovered not by Durham but by the Justice Department’s inspector general, and the two cases that Durham took to trials ended in full acquittals.

Durham declined comment after the hearing, but he said in a statement issued through the Justice Department: "While we are disappointed in the outcome, we respect the jury’s decision and thank them for their service. I also want to recognize and thank the investigators and the prosecution team for their dedicated efforts in seeking truth and justice in this case.”

He issued an identical statement after the first trial ended in acquittal.

The Danchenko case was the first of the three to delve deeply into the origins of the “Steele dossier,” a compendium of allegations that Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign was colluding with the Kremlin.

Most famously, it alleged that the Russians could have blackmail material on Trump for his supposed interactions with prostitutes in a Moscow hotel. Trump derided the dossier as fake news and a political witch hunt when it became public in 2017.

Danchenko, by his own admission, was responsible for 80% of the raw intelligence in the dossier and half of the accompanying analysis, though trial testimony indicated that Danchenko was shocked and dismayed about how Steele presented the material and portrayed it as factual when Danchenko considered it more to be rumor and speculation.

Prosecutors said that if Danchenko had been more honest about his sources, the FBI might not have treated the dossier so credulously. As it turned out, the FBI used material from the dossier to support applications for warrantless surveillance of a Trump campaign official, Carter Page, even though the FBI never was able to corroborate a single allegation in the dossier.

Prosecutors said Danchenko lied about the identity of his own sources for the material he gave to Steele. The specific charges against Danchenko allege that he essentially fabricated one of his sources when the FBI interviewed him to determine how he derived the material he provided for the dossier.

Danchenko told the FBI that some of the material came when he received an anonymous call from a man he believed to be Sergei Millian, a former president of the Russian-American Chamber of Commerce.

Prosecutors said Danchenko’s story made no sense. They said that phone records show no evidence of a call, and that Danchenko had no reason to believe Millian, a Trump supporter he’d never met, was suddenly going to be willing to provide disparaging information about Trump to a stranger.

Danchenko’s lawyers, as a starting point, maintain that Danchenko never said he talked with Millian. He only guessed that Millian might have been the caller when the FBI asked him to speculate. And they said he shouldn’t be convicted of a crime for making a guess at the FBI’s invitation.

That said, Danchenko’s lawyers say, he had good reason to believe the caller may well have been Millian. The call came just a few days after Danchenko had reached out to Millian over email after a mutual acquaintance brokered a connection over email.

And Danchenko’s lawyers say it’s irrelevant that his phone records don’t show a call because Danchenko told the FBI from the start that the call might have taken place over a secure mobile app for which he had no records.

The jury began deliberations Monday afternoon after hearing closing arguments on four counts. On Friday, U.S. District Judge Anthony Trenga threw out a fifth count, saying prosecutors had failed to prove it as a matter of law.

Trenga nearly threw out all of the charges before the trial began, citing the legal strength of Danchenko's defense, but allowed the case to proceed in what he described as “an extremely close call.”

[I AM IRONMAN]

THIS TIME buddy….THIS TIME!

[DBP66]

1 minute ago, I AM IRONMAN said:

THIS TIME buddy….THIS TIME!

no..not this time!...Durham struck out...again....the last hope for you silly Trumpers....😉

[DBP66]

Trump drops F-bombs and shares possibly sensitive information in newly released audio

Stephen Proctor

Wed, October 19, 2022 at 3:07 AM

 

 

Previously unheard audio of former President Donald Trump aired on Anderson Cooper 360 Tuesday night. Famed journalist Bob Woodward recorded 20 conversations he had with the former president, with his knowledge, from 2016 through 2020. Trump, who is facing possible legal peril for taking classified documents when he left office, appears in one recording to share sensitive information with Woodward.

“I have built a weapons system that nobody’s ever had in this country before,” Trump said. “We have stuff that you haven’t even seen or heard about. We have stuff that Putin and Xi have never heard about before.”

Trump also spoke of Russia’s nuclear capabilities.

“Getting along with Russia is a good thing, not a bad thing, alright?” Trump said. “Especially because they have 1,332 nuclear f***ing warheads.”

Throughout his presidency, Trump was criticized for his apparent affinity for authoritarian leaders, which he spoke about to Woodward.

“It’s funny, the relationships I have, the tougher and meaner they are, the better I get along with them. You know? Explain that to me someday, okay,” Trump said. “But maybe it’s not a bad thing. The easy ones are the ones I maybe don’t like as much or don’t get along with as much.”

In another recording, Trump brags about how he handled being impeached, while at the same time taking shots at two of his predecessors who also faced impeachment.

“There’s nobody that’s tougher than me,” Trump said. “Nobody’s tougher than me. You asked me about impeachment. I’m under impeachment, and you said, you know, you just act like you won the f***ing race. Nixon was in a corner with his thumb in his mouth. Bill Clinton took it very, very hard. I just do things, okay?”

In 2016, Woodward asked then-candidate Trump about having his staff sign non-disclosure agreements. Woodward recorded Trump talking to his staff about who had and who had not yet signed one. Trump was confident in the effectiveness of these agreements at the time, but a multitude of former officials wrote tell-all books after leaving the administration.

Woodward plans to release the more than eight hours of recordings as an audiobook titled The Trump Tapes on October 25.

[Warrior]

1 hour ago, DBP66 said:

Trump drops F-bombs and shares possibly sensitive information in newly released audio

Stephen Proctor

Wed, October 19, 2022 at 3:07 AM

 

 

Previously unheard audio of former President Donald Trump aired on Anderson Cooper 360 Tuesday night. Famed journalist Bob Woodward recorded 20 conversations he had with the former president, with his knowledge, from 2016 through 2020. Trump, who is facing possible legal peril for taking classified documents when he left office, appears in one recording to share sensitive information with Woodward.

“I have built a weapons system that nobody’s ever had in this country before,” Trump said. “We have stuff that you haven’t even seen or heard about. We have stuff that Putin and Xi have never heard about before.”

Trump also spoke of Russia’s nuclear capabilities.

“Getting along with Russia is a good thing, not a bad thing, alright?” Trump said. “Especially because they have 1,332 nuclear f***ing warheads.”

Throughout his presidency, Trump was criticized for his apparent affinity for authoritarian leaders, which he spoke about to Woodward.

“It’s funny, the relationships I have, the tougher and meaner they are, the better I get along with them. You know? Explain that to me someday, okay,” Trump said. “But maybe it’s not a bad thing. The easy ones are the ones I maybe don’t like as much or don’t get along with as much.”

In another recording, Trump brags about how he handled being impeached, while at the same time taking shots at two of his predecessors who also faced impeachment.

“There’s nobody that’s tougher than me,” Trump said. “Nobody’s tougher than me. You asked me about impeachment. I’m under impeachment, and you said, you know, you just act like you won the f***ing race. Nixon was in a corner with his thumb in his mouth. Bill Clinton took it very, very hard. I just do things, okay?”

In 2016, Woodward asked then-candidate Trump about having his staff sign non-disclosure agreements. Woodward recorded Trump talking to his staff about who had and who had not yet signed one. Trump was confident in the effectiveness of these agreements at the time, but a multitude of former officials wrote tell-all books after leaving the administration.

Woodward plans to release the more than eight hours of recordings as an audiobook titled The Trump Tapes on October 25.

 

Hard Hitting piece right there.

[DBP66]

19 minutes ago, Warrior said:

 

Hard Hitting piece right there.

it just shows what a complete moron he is....as if we didn't know...he's real TOUGH huh??...LOL...🙄

[concha]

POLITICS

OCTOBER 18, 2022

Americans' Trust In Media Remains Near Record Low

BY MEGAN BRENAN

 

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• 34% have a "great deal" or "fair amount" of confidence in media
• 38% with no trust at all outpaces great deal/fair amount for first time
• 70% of Democrats, 14% of Republicans, 27% of independents trust media

[DBP66]

5 minutes ago, concha said:

POLITICS

OCTOBER 18, 2022

Americans' Trust In Media Remains Near Record Low

BY MEGAN BRENAN

 

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• 34% have a "great deal" or "fair amount" of confidence in media
• 38% with no trust at all outpaces great deal/fair amount for first time
• 70% of Democrats, 14% of Republicans, 27% of independents trust media

only 14 % of Republicans trust the media??...LOL...and the remaining 86% of Republicans prefer to believe a certified B.S. artist....the same clowns who think the election was "stolen"....it's called being "brainwashed"....😪

[Warrior]

42 minutes ago, DBP66 said:

it just shows what a complete moron he is....as if we didn't know...he's real TOUGH huh??...LOL...🙄

It doesn’t show shit, it’s all fluff. But you know that already.

[DBP66]

1 minute ago, Warrior said:

It doesn’t show shit, it’s all fluff. But you know that already.

it's Trump's own words...it shows his state of mind....what little he has....😉

[Warrior]

54 minutes ago, DBP66 said:

it's Trump's own words...it shows his state of mind....what little he has....😉

Haha….read your article it’s a joke. It says nothing but in your mind.

Here’e the supposedly hard hitting info Trump said…I have built a weapons system that nobody’s ever had in this country before,” Trump said. “We have stuff that you haven’t even seen or heard about. We have stuff that Putin and Xi have never heard about before.”

Wow!! You got him this time 

[Warrior]

Kinda sounds like a deterrent to me, you know trying to stay OUT of wars. 
 

Best deterrent to war is strength. 

[DBP66]

1 hour ago, Warrior said:

Haha….read your article it’s a joke. It says nothing but in your mind.

Here’e the supposedly hard hitting info Trump said…I have built a weapons system that nobody’s ever had in this country before,” Trump said. “We have stuff that you haven’t even seen or heard about. We have stuff that Putin and Xi have never heard about before.”

Wow!! You got him this time 

"hard hitting"....LOL...who said that??...you....not me...I said it spoke to his state of mind...his crazy-ass mind....do you think he should be telling a reporter about secret weapons systems?!?!....NO...🙄

[DBP66]

Trump to Testify Under Oath Today in Defamation Case Brought by Rape Accuser

 

 

Ryan Bort

Wed, October 19, 2022 at 9:30 AM

 

 

 

trump-defamation-hearing - Credit: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

In 2019, E. Jean Carroll accused Donald Trump of raping her in a department-store fitting room in the 1990s. Trump vehemently denied the allegation and called her a liar, prompting Carroll, a former magazine writer, to sue him for defamation. The case has been ongoing, and Trump has long been trying to avoid sitting for a deposition. Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled last week that the former will have to testify. He’ll do so on Wednesday, although it isn’t clear if Trump will actually answer questions.

“The defendant should not be permitted to run the clock out on plaintiff’s attempt to gain a remedy for what allegedly was a serious wrong,” Kaplan wrote in her ruling last week, adding that Trump’s push to delay the proceedings while producing almost no documents was “inexcusable.”

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The defamation case has been under appeal for nearly two years, but Kaplan didn’t see its contested status as justification for delaying Trump’s deposition. “Completing those depositions — which have already been delayed for years — would impose no undue burden on Mr. Trump, let alone any irreparable injury,” he wrote.

Carroll alleged Trump raped her in her 2019 book What Do We Need Men For? A Modest Proposal. Trump responded by saying Carroll was “not my type” while categorically denying the incident took place. “Totally lying. I don’t know anything about her,” Trump told The Hill. “I know nothing about this woman. I know nothing about her. She is — it’s just a terrible thing that people can make statements like that.”

Carroll sued Trump for defamation a few months later, and Trump has been contesting the case ever since, even alleging Carroll is violating his right to free speech by suing him. Carroll has remained steadfast. “I’ll never settle,” she said outside a New York City courtroom earlier this year. “We’re in this fight, not really for me, but for all women who have been grabbed and groped, and assaulted and raped, who were silenced.”

Carroll announced late last month that she intends to file a new lawsuit against Trump after Governor Kathy Hochul signed a law allowing sexual assault victims a one-time opportunity to file civil lawsuits even if statutes of limitations have expired. “We are pleased that Judge Kaplan agreed with our position not to stay discovery in this case,” Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, said in a statement provided to Rolling Stone last week. “We look forward to filing our case under the Adult Survivors Act and moving forward to trial with all dispatch.”

[DBP66]

Trump Fraud Suit Will Stay Before Judge Who Held Him in Contempt

 

Erik Larson

Wed, October 19, 2022 at 4:21 PM

 

 

(Bloomberg) -- Former President Donald Trump lost his request to transfer New York’s fraud lawsuit against him and his company to a different court division in Manhattan, ensuring the case will remain before the same judge who once held him in contempt of court.

An administrative judge on Wednesday denied a motion by Trump and the Trump Organization to move the case the court’s Commercial Division rather than keep it before Justice Arthur Engoron, who repeatedly ruled against Trump in a fight over New York’s subpoenas before the suit was filed.

 

New York Attorney General Letitia James, who sued last month after a three-year investigation, had asked the court to keep the case before Engoron as a “related matter.” James’s motion for a preliminary injunction last week was blasted by Trump’s lawyer as part of an effort to keep the case with Engoron, whom Trump has called unfair.

 

The injunction motion “is nothing more than a thinly-veiled attempt to keep this case with Justice Engoron rather than have it transferred to the Commercial Division where it belongs,” Alina Habba, Trump’s personal lawyer, said in an Oct. 13 filing. Habba argued the $250 million lawsuit belonged in the Commercial Division because it qualifies as a complicated commercial matter.

Habba didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Engoron held Trump in contempt of court in April and fined him $10,000 a day for failing to turn over any records related to potentially fraudulent asset valuations at his sprawling company. Trump racked up $110,000 in fines before coming into compliance with the judge.

[DBP66]

This is BIG news....busted for lying...once again....as his minions claim he "won" the election....useful idiots....😪

 

Emails show Trump knowingly pressed false voter fraud claims, judge says

 

FILE PHOTO - Trump holds rally in Arizona

 

Jacqueline Thomsen

Wed, October 19, 2022 at 4:38 PM

 

 

By Jacqueline Thomsen

(Reuters) -A California federal judge on Wednesday said then-U.S. President Donald Trump had signed a sworn statement asserting that voter fraud numbers included in a 2020 election lawsuit were accurate, despite being told the numbers were not correct.

U.S. District Judge David Carter made the disclosure in ordering lawyer John Eastman to provide more emails to the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump's supporters.

Eastman was one of Trump's attorneys when the former president and his allies challenged his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden.

 

Representatives for Trump and Eastman did not immediately return requests for comment.

Carter said Wednesday that Trump had "signed a verification swearing under oath" that the inaccurate fraud numbers were "true and correct" or "believed to be true and correct" to the best of his knowledge and belief, when alleging the improper counting of votes in a county in Georgia.

"The emails show that President Trump knew that the specific numbers of voter fraud were wrong but continued to tout those numbers, both in court and to the public," the judge wrote.

Carter has previously ruled that Eastman and Trump had likely committed a felony by trying to pressure his then-vice president to obstruct Congress.

The ruling was made in a lawsuit filed by Eastman to block disclosure of the emails to the Jan. 6 select committee, following a congressional subpoena.

Carter has previously ordered Eastman to provide over 200 emails to the committee, after the lawyer resisted the subpoena and claimed that the communications were privileged.

The judge said Wednesday that the vast majority of emails still being sought by congressional investigators should not be handed over, as legal protections given to attorneys and their clients apply to the records.

He said eight emails that would normally be shielded under those protections must be given to the committee, after he found that the communications were in furtherance of a crime -- one of the few times those legal safeguards can be lifted.

Carter found that four emails show that Eastman and other lawyers suggested that the "primary goal" of filing lawsuits was to delay Congress's certification of the 2020 election results.

The judge said four other emails "demonstrate an effort by President Trump and his attorneys to press false claims in federal court for the purpose of delaying the January 6 vote."

Trump and his allies filed over 60 lawsuits challenging the 2020 election, which Biden won, with some complaints alleging voter fraud without evidence to support those claims. Those cases were overwhelmingly rejected by judges, some of which Trump appointed to the federal courts.

The Jan. 6 select committee last week voted to subpoena Trump in its investigation. It is set to issue a report in the coming weeks on its findings.

[I AM IRONMAN]

You need a new hobby!

[Warrior]

DP just before bedtime.

[DBP66]

11 hours ago, Warrior said:

DP just before bedtime.

and your T.V. tells you Trump won the election.....and you believe it....🤡

[concha]

US sees RECORD drop in house sales as purchases plummet 23% and listings plunge 22% - amid skyrocketing mortgage rates and crippling inflation

[concha]

[DBP66]

Trump claim of ‘Crime of Century’ fizzles in 3-year probe

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  Trump claim of ‘Crime of Century’ fizzles in 3-year probe

  This exhibit from video released by the House Select Committee, shows a photo of then-President Donald Trump with his coast on as he returns to the Oval Office after speaking on the Ellipse on Jan. 6, 2021, displayed at a hearing by the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, Thursday, Oct. 13, 2022, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (House Select Committee via AP)

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  Trump Russia Probe

  FILE - Igor Danchenko, a think tank analyst accused of lying to the FBI about his role in the creation of a discredited dossier about former President Donald Trump, leaves Albert V. Bryan United States Courthouse in Alexandria, Va., on Nov. 4, 2021. A jury on Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2022, acquitted Danchenko on all counts. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)

  ASSOCIATED PRESS

ERIC TUCKER

Wed, October 19, 2022 at 4:47 PM

 

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump once predicted that a special prosecutor appointed during his administration would uncover “the crime of the century” — a conspiracy to sink his 2016 campaign.

Yet here are the results of the three-year probe by prosecutor John Durham: two trial acquittals — the latest on Tuesday — and a former FBI attorney sentenced to probation.

That has fallen far short of Trump supporters’ expectations that Durham would reveal a “deep state” plot behind the U.S. government’s investigation into ties between Russia and Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

The outcome has led to scrutiny over the purpose of Durham’s appointment by former Attorney General William Barr, who tasked him with sussing out misconduct in the Trump-Russia probe. It also has raised questions about whether or when the current attorney general, Merrick Garland, might move to rein in Durham’s work or hasten its completion.

“You really measure the success of an investigation by what it uncovers in terms of pernicious activity, and he’s uncovered nothing,” said Stephen Saltzburg, a George Washington University law professor and former senior Justice Department official.

Video: Trump deposed in defamation lawsuit

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scroll back up to restore default view.

There are no signs Durham plans to charge anyone else in his investigation. He is expected to produce a report at some point, but it’s unclear whether he will identify any significant misconduct or errors beyond those already reported by the Justice Department’s watchdog.

Barr gave Durham a broad mandate in 2019 to hunt for wrongdoing by the FBI or other agencies in the early days of their investigation into potential coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia. At the time, Durham was the U.S. attorney in Connecticut with decades of Justice Department experience, including investigating CIA interrogations of terror suspects.

Trump supporters cheered the appointment, and not just because of Durham's bona fides.

The appointment was made shortly after the conclusion of an investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller, which found substantial contacts between Russians and Trump associates but did not allege a criminal conspiracy between them. In December 2019, a Justice Department inspector general report concluded that the Russia investigation was opened for a legitimate reason but identified numerous errors in how it was conducted — giving Trump and his supporters an avenue of attack and optimism over Durham.

But by the end of 2020, there were signs Durham's investigation was losing momentum.

One of his top prosecutors resigned without explanation from the Justice Department. Months later, Barr told The Wall Street Journal that he did not believe there had been improper activity during the Russia investigation by the CIA, even though suspicions about the intelligence community had helped prompt Durham's appointment in the first place.

The year ended with just one criminal case — a guilty plea by an FBI lawyer who admitted doctoring an internal email related to the surveillance of a former Trump campaign adviser. Kevin Clinesmith was sentenced to probation, rather than prison. Notably, the case involved conduct uncovered in an earlier investigation by the inspector general, rather than by Durham's team.

Two other criminal cases, also narrow in nature, faltered. After deliberating for just a few hours, a jury in May acquitted Michael Sussmann, a lawyer for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign. He had been accused of lying to the FBI during a meeting in which he presented the bureau's top lawyer with information about Trump he thought should be investigated.

On Tuesday, a jury acquitted Igor Danchenko, a Russian analyst at a U.S. think tank who'd been accused of lying to the FBI about his role in the creation of a largely discredited dossier — a compendium of unproven assertions that sought to tie Trump to Russia and whose creation was funded by Democrats. During the trial, he attacked the credibility of FBI agents who were his own witnesses.

Despite the lack of convictions, Durham has still managed to cast an unflattering light on aspects of the Russia investigation. The Danchenko trial, for instance, centered on the origins of the dossier, which helped form the basis of secret surveillance applications the FBI filed to monitor the communications of ex-Trump campaign aide Carter Page.

Even so, Page was one of numerous threads investigated by the FBI, and the dossier did not initiate the Russia probe. The allegations from Durham's probe have also not erased the core finding of the Mueller probe — that Russia wanted Trump elected and that Trump's team welcomed the help — nor have they swayed jurors.

“While Durham essentially tried to put the FBI itself on trial through these prosecutions by pointing to missteps and errors in the early Trump-Russia probe, the cases painted the FBI as more victim than perpetrator and evidence of any orchestrated scheme by FBI agents to steer the investigation for political purposes never materialized,” Robert Mintz, a New Jersey lawyer and former federal prosecutor, wrote in an email.

The Justice Department declined to comment about Durham's future, including how much longer his team might continue or when he might produce a report. Weeks before he resigned, Barr designated Durham as a special counsel to ensure his investigation would continue in the Biden administration.

A spokesman for Durham declined to comment on criticism of the work.

Garland and senior Justice Department leaders, perhaps careful to avoid the perception of meddling in such a politically charged investigation, have taken a hands-off approach to Durham's work.

Before Sussmann was indicted, his attorneys appealed to senior department officials in hopes of preventing a charge, according to a person familiar with the matter who insisted on anonymity to discuss private conversations. But the Justice Department rebuffed the protest, allowing the case to proceed.

Now, though, there is rising pressure not only on Durham to wrap up but on Garland, as attorney general, to urge him along.

“I think he was very wise to let this run its course," Saltzburg said of Garland. “I believe the course has been run. It’s over. I believe what Merrick Garland should say to Durham is, it’s time to submit your report and go home.”

[I AM IRONMAN]

TDS…..it’s a serious illness.  Big Pharma needs to come up with something to help those in need.

[concha]

 

 

2022 Generic Congressional Vote

 

2020 Generic Vote | 2018 Generic Vote | 2016 Generic Vote | 2014 Generic Vote | 2012 Generic Vote | Latest Polls

 

Polling Data

Poll	Date	Sample	Republicans (R)	Democrats (D)	Spread
RCP Average	10/9 - 10/18	--	48.1	44.8	Republicans +3.3
Monmouth	10/13 - 10/17	756 RV	50	44	Republicans +6
CNBC	10/13 - 10/16	800 RV	48	46	Republicans +2
Economist/YouGov	10/16 - 10/18	1110 LV	47	46	Republicans +1
Politico/Morning Consult	10/14 - 10/16	2005 RV	44	45	Democrats +1
CBS News Battleground Tracker	10/12 - 10/14	1753 LV	47	45	Republicans +2
Harvard-Harris	10/12 - 10/13	LV	53	47	Republicans +6
Trafalgar Group (R)	10/10 - 10/12	1079 LV	48	43	Republicans +5
Rasmussen Reports	10/9 - 10/13	2500 LV	48	41	Republicans +7
NY Times/Siena	10/9 - 10/12	792 LV	49	45	Republicans +4
FOX News	10/9 - 10/12	LV	47	46	Republicans +1