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June
07
2022

Swamp Gas
James Howard Kunstler

Consider that, if nothing else, John Durham knows a lot more about all this business, and that might include some things that we don’t know….

On Monday, Michael Sussmann, Esq., was released like an undersized crawdad  back into the fetid waters of the DC swamp by a jury of his peers — meaning fellow DNC contributors — despite compelling evidence of his guilt. Special Counsel John Durham took the loss with stoical equanimity, leading some to suspect that he was in on yet another ritual humiliation for the out-group of Americans who might call themselves We-the-Not Insane.

The outcome of the trial raises a passel of questions about Mr. Durham’s mission, his integrity, the fitness of the federal courts, and our country’s relations with some rather important principles such as truth and justice. Why? Because the RussiaGate affair at issue evinced a gangrenous rot that is remorselessly killing America in body and soul — if you care about such things.

It’s pretty obvious that Mr. Durham knew all along that the Sussmann trial would be a low percentage play in terms of getting a conviction. The law stipulates that federal crimes must be tried in the district where they were committed, and the DC federal district court is effectively a praetorian guard for the ruling officialdom. Enemies of the so-called Deep State, such as General Flynn, get cruelly punished and ruined by procedural artifice; Deep State errand boys like Kevin Clinesmith and Michael Sussmann just flash their Get-Out-of-Jail-Free cards and go back to The Life. Yet, Mr. Durham did bother to bring the case, so… why?

Some might say, he had to do something to justify the years he’s spent investigating the origins of RussiaGate. Meanwhile, many books have been written setting forth the very precise fact-patterns of criminality among a huge cast of characters throughout our government. What happened in the years-long campaign of RussiaGate left a matrix of slime-trails from the White House to the FISA courts, to the seventh floor of the FBI building, to the CIA, the DoD, the State Department, Congress, and to swamp outposts in foreign lands where chimerical creatures like Josef Mifsud and Stefan Halper scurried about in mud and darkness on shifty assignments. All these big and little fish to hook, and all he could come up with was Clinesmith and Sussmann, two guppies?

Let’s assume that John Durham actually cares about his self-respect and his reputation. Let’s go a little further and suppose that he cares about what has happened to our country lately — an ignoble surrender to lawlessness and to collective insanity generated by official disrespect for truth — which is to say, reality. What’s his game? Does he have a game? Some astute observers insist that all long Mr. Durham was no less of a tool than all the other characters in this vast opera of historic villainy. Maybe so.

Among the many obstacles he faced bringing to justice the actual perpetrators of RussiaGate was that the statute of limitations had run out on some of their alleged crimes, such as FBI higher-ups James Comey, Andrew McCabe, and Rod Rosenstein lying to Congress. The statute of limitation is a lot less clear concerning charges of seditious conspiracy, that is, to “overthrow the government… and to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States”… etc. One could argue that RussiaGate was exactly about overthrowing the head of the executive branch and subsequently trying to cover it up.

One thing is certain: a substantial part of the American public is unsatisfied that the figures involved in all these misdeeds still have not been subject to any formal examination of their acts, trials in federal court being the most decisive kind of test. Yet Mr. Durham plugs on, with the upcoming trial of another seemingly small fish, Igor Danchenko, a.k.a. the “sub-source” for Christopher Steele’s notorious dossier that was used to justify the legal harassment of Mr. Trump from the midst of his 2016 campaign for president to April 2019, when Robert Mueller released his report empty of charges.

Does it just end with Danchenko then? Consider that, if nothing else, John Durham knows a lot more about all this business, and that might include some things that we don’t know. Is he constrained by Attorney General Merrick Garland’s obviously hostile DOJ? Can he or will he carry on despite that? If he can’t bring any more cases to court because of the scoping limits placed on his original assignment by former AG Barr, will he issue a report at least laying out the cases that he is prevented from bringing to court? All this gets back to John Durham’s self-respect and care for his country.

As reported by Margot Cleveland at The Federalist, the primary target of RussiaGate, Mr. Trump, has filed a civil suit in the state of Florida against Hillary Clinton, the Clinton campaign, the Democratic National Committee, the Perkins Coie law firm, and lawyers Marc Elias and Mr. Sussmann under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, better known as “RICO.” (Congress passed a law allowing those harmed by violations of RICO to sue for civil damages.) Those issues, too, are subject to a four-year statute of limitations based on exactly when the plaintiff (Mr. Trump) must have known of his injury, which was at the latest in 2018 when then-Congressman Devin Nunes, chair of the House Intel Committee, released a memo detailing the Clinton campaign’s role in the Steele Dossier nonsense. Therefore, the suit may be an expensive waste of time and effort, so why is he bringing it?

All of this pales beside the exorbitant sense of futility that We-the-Not-Insane have been subjected to in an additional cavalcade of abuse from our government since RussiaGate, namely, the colossal insults and mind-fuckeries of the Covid-19 operation. And now we’re forced to stand by and witness the deliberate demolition of America’s economy by an obviously incompetent and suspiciously installed regime behind the figurehead known as “President Joe Biden.” This is sure to end worse than not well.







The Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity is a project of Dr. Paul’s Foundation for Rational Economics and Education (F.R.E.E.), founded in the 1970s as an educational organization. The Institute continues and expands Dr. Paul’s lifetime of public advocacy for a peaceful foreign policy and the protection of civil liberties at home.

The Institute mobilizes colleagues and collaborators of Dr. Paul’s to participate in a broad coalition to educate and advocate for fundamental changes in our foreign and domestic policy.

A prosperous America is profoundly linked to a foreign policy rooted in peaceful relations and trade with all. With peace, comes real prosperity.

Ron Paul’s real legacy in his writing, teaching, and in politics is his success bringing people of very different backgrounds and perspectives together under the common cause of peace, individual liberties, and prosperity. His institute energetically continues this kind of “coalition-building” in all aspects of its work. The Institute board is itself one of the best examples of how broad a coalition can come together and work for the same shared goals and values.

First and foremost a resource for supporters, the Institute provides timely news and provocative analysis through its engaging website. Features such as “Congress Alert” and “Neo-Con Watch” bring to life the latest threats to our liberties at home and abroad in a capsule format. Longer features and press analysis, as well as blog posts, regularly appear, giving the Institute the character of an online magazine.

The Institute places special emphasis on education and on the next generations, with a foreign policy summer school for university students studying international affairs and journalism.

It will aggressively promote student writing on foreign affairs on its website and will launch a student writing award program to recognize the best of college journalism.


 

 

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