Durham Distances Himself From Furor in Right-Wing Media Over Filing

[TomFitz]

What Durham engaged in was “scandal fan service.”

“Perhaps, one of these weeks, Special Counsel John Durham will crack open serious wrongdoing in the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election. This is not that week.

But following a Friday filing by Durham, a Justice Department attorney appointed in 2019 to investigate the investigation, many right-wing outlets insisted it was, and pilloried the mainstream press for giving the filing short shrift. Eventually, the mainstream outlets grudgingly obliged, and what they found is, well, not much: The filing comes in a curious case against a lawyer who worked for the 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign. In the fantasy version, the filing shows that the Clinton campaign had a mole in Trump Tower and the White House. In reality, as the journalists Charlie Savage and Philip Bump detail, it does not demonstrate this at all.

If you must know more, dig into those explainers, but you can save yourself the time. This flap is what we might call a “fan-service scandal,” to borrow a term for when entertainment franchises produce content designed to excite enthusiasts, not move stories forward. The latest bit of Durham-investigation news is a titillating plot twist for people who have already bought into the Trump narrative, and largely incomprehensible—and inconsequential—for those who haven’t. This duality makes fan-service scandals powerful tools for motivating a base or keeping it frothed up, but they don’t usually work well as tools of persuasion.”

The Lure of the Fan-Service Scandal

These sagas are powerful tools for motivating a base or keeping it frothed up, but they don’t usually work well as tools of persuasion.

www.theatlantic.com

I had never heard that term before. Thanks for enlightening me.

Conservative media is an entertainment business. The guys who ranted on right wing talk radio used this tactic all the time. Their living depended (s) on promoting outrage and getting a rise out of any audience that doesn’t really care if what they hear is true. Just like shock jocks and “morning zoo” types.

Roger Ailes just polished it up by putting it on a screen.

 

[party free]

..Most important, the coverage about purported spying on the Trump White House was premised on the idea that the White House network data involved came from when Mr. Trump was president. But Mr. Durham’s filing did not say when it was from. Lawyers for a Georgia Institute of Technology data scientist who helped analyze the Yota data said on Monday that the data came from the Obama presidency. Mr. Sussmann’s lawyers said the same in a filing on Monday night complaining about Mr. Durham’s conduct.

Do you need glasses??? Your apology is accepted.

You may want to read what you copy/pasted again. This doesn't hurt Hillary or vindicate Trump.

 

[Cardinal]

Not sure what COVID would have done to contribute to a slowdown. I was able to continue working with international clients the entire time. What would have been the impact on Durham? He didn't need to be locked into smoked filled conference rooms looking at folders.

Two years ago he got Clinesmith on supposedly manipulating an email about Carter Page. He has come up with nothing since then, until this, which doesn't even do what the right claims (implicate Clinton in spying).

I would also add that Covid hasn't appeared to inhibit the January 6 investigation from moving at breakneck speed.

 

[TomFitz]

Manafort's seized assets reduced that number to nearly $0 but because of Trump's pardon, the disposition of Manafort's assets is unclear.

Checking Out the Scene at Paul Manafort’s Brownstone-Foreclosure Auction

A Trump pardon apparently can't solve all the problems that stem from being associated with Trump. https://www.curbed.com/2022/02/paul-manafort-brooklyn-foreclosure-sale.html A plea deal with federal prosecutors in 2018 required Manafort and his wife to put the house on the market, a plan...

debatepolitics.com

That depends on whether the work he did for Moscow when he was trump’s campaign manager was enough to “wipe the slate clean” regarding the money he owed Oleg Deripashka.

 

[Paradoxical]

You may want to read what you copy/pasted again. This doesn't hurt Hillary or vindicate Trump.

The poster said that this came from Durham and I proved her wrong once again. It was his attorneys saying it.

 

[Rawley]

Is that the best you've got?

Yep. Laughing my ass off how this simple filing by Biden's DOJ has the lefty's panties so twisted up. Delicioius. Did you hear Hillary's whining. Hoo Doggies.

 

[Rawley]

I would also add that Covid hasn't appeared to inhibit the January 6 investigation from moving at breakneck speed.

They are not using Grand Juries.

 

[Paradoxical]

That depends on whether the work he did for Moscow when he was trump’s campaign manager was enough to “wipe the slate clean” regarding the money he owed Oleg Deripashka.

We should all just let Durham do his job. He is setting the table. Whether Hellery is indicted or not is irrelevant. She is guilty in the court of public opinion now and that's all that matters. She bought and paid for the Russian Collusion ruse through Perkins Coie and that is what history will say.

 

[Paradoxical]

They are not using Grand Juries.

Banana Republics the world over are studying Pelosi's methods.

 

[Cardinal]

They are not using Grand Juries.

So? In before you reply "google it," "educate yourself," or "if you have to ask you'll never get it," because you just made up that distinction arbitrarily.

 

[CaughtInThe]

Yep. Laughing my ass off how this simple filing by Biden's DOJ has the lefty's panties so twisted up. Delicioius. Did you hear Hillary's whining. Hoo Doggies.

Yeah, it's not like Fox News and a bunch of right wing outlets took it and ran with it and thought it was something great. The 2 or 3 threads here are now really funny.

I'm sorry it yet another flaccid report for you guys.

 

[Rawley]

So? In before you reply "google it," "educate yourself," or "if you have to ask you'll never get it," because you just made up that distinction arbitrarily.

DOJ has to use Grand Juries, Nancy's Partisan Circus doesn't..

 

[Cardinal]

DOJ has to use Grand Juries, Nancy's Partisan Circus doesn't..

So? You're just repeating yourself because you made up that distinction arbitrarily and have no idea where to go from there.

 

[Credence]

In a filing on Thursday, Mr. Durham defended himself, saying those accusations about his intentions were “simply not true.” He said he had “valid and straightforward reasons” for including the information in the Feb. 11 filing that set off the firestorm, while disavowing responsibility for how certain news outlets had interpreted and portrayed it. “If third parties or members of the media have overstated, understated or otherwise misinterpreted facts contained in the government’s motion, that does not in any way undermine the valid reasons for the government’s inclusion of this information,” he wrote.

...Most important, the coverage about purported spying on the Trump White House was premised on the idea that the White House network data involved came from when Mr. Trump was president. But Mr. Durham’s filing did not say when it was from. Lawyers for a Georgia Institute of Technology data scientist who helped analyze the Yota data said on Monday that the data came from the Obama presidency. Mr. Sussmann’s lawyers said the same in a filing on Monday night complaining about Mr. Durham’s conduct.

Link

Trump said Obama spied on him. Turns out, the government spied on Obama!

From Sussman's filing; a very important footnote (bottom of p2)

1 For example, although the Spec ial Counsel implies that in Mr. Sussmann’s February 9, 2017
meeting, he provided Agency-2 with EOP data from after Mr. Trump took office, the Special
Counsel is well aware that the data provided to Agency-2 pertained only to the period of time
before Mr. Trump took office, when Barack Obama was President. Further—and contrary to the
Special Counsel’s alleged theory that Mr. Su ssmann was acting in concert with the Clinton
Campaign—the Motion conveniently overlooks th e fact that Mr. Sussm ann’s meeting with
Agency-2 happened well after the2016 presidential election, at atime when the Clinton Campaign
had effectively ceased to exist. Unsurprisingly, the Motion also omits any mention of the fact that
Mr. Sussmann never billed the Clinton Campaign for the work associated with the February 9,
2017 meeting, nor could he have (because there was no Clinton Campaign). See Dkt. No. 35 at 3-
4. And the Special Counsel persists in alleging that Mr. Sussmann billed the Clinton Campaign
for his meeting with the FBI in September 2016, when that is false as well

 

[element94]

So Durham is playing CYA because the morons who lap up fake news from Fox got out of control. Too freaking funny.

It takes a very special kind of person to believe the steaming load Fox News excretes daily.

 

[Rawley]

So? You're just repeating yourself because you made up that distinction arbitrarily and have no idea where to go from there.

Have a nice day.

 

[Plasmaball]

Lol Durham just threw every " conservative " on this board under the bus and they are gonna ignore it.

 

[beefheart]

This thread is about the comments from Durham. Right in the OP.

How embarrassing for you that you don't even know what's being discussed.

Keep tripping up, and we will keep pointing and laughing at you.

Ignore him, he just is here to waste our time and make endless troll posts.

 

[Cardinal]

Have a nice day.

No....you have a nice day!

 

[Credence]

It takes a very special kind of person to believe the steaming load Fox News excretes daily.

It has to be subliminal messaging and non-Trump supporters are immune

 

[Vern]

The left wants you to just move along.

Nothing to see here... It's all the right wings fault. Or maybe fox news caused the spying on Trump. Yea... don't forget mean and nasty Trump! Just move along!

CS, i see a couple of posters have responded to you already but I want to make sure you understand. First "the left" doesnt want to "just move along". You are literally in a thread where "the left" wants to continue to discuss Durham's statements. He's now admitting what everybody but conservatives already knew.

The special counsel implicitly acknowledged that White House internet data he discussed, which conservative outlets have portrayed as proof of spying on the Trump White House, came from the Obama era.

So there is something to see here. You and every conservative fell for yet another lying conservative narrative. And it is 100% the right wing's fault for propagating this lyinjg narrative. Then we get the classic conservative blunder. You're posting as if trump was spied on. "fox news caused the spying on Trump". you have to learn to let go of false narratives. anyhoo, I found the best response for your post in this thread

One big stupid defection post!

 

[TomFitz]

We should all just let Durham do his job. He is setting the table. Whether Hellery is indicted or not is irrelevant. She is guilty in the court of public opinion now and that's all that matters. She bought and paid for the Russian Collusion ruse through Perkins Coie and that is what history will say.

I have no idea what that had to do with Manafort’s debt to Deripashka.

Hillary Clinton isn’t going to be indicted, and this is going to go nowhere.

She’s only guilty in the Fox Noise world of public opinion.

Nobody else cares.

 

[Rawley]

It takes a very special kind of person to believe the steaming load Fox News excretes daily.

From the folks that get their news from Joy Behar on the View. LOL

 

[TomFitz]

CS, i see a couple of posters have responded to you already but I want to make sure you understand. First "the left" doesnt want to "just move along". You are literally in a thread where "the left" wants to continue to discuss Durham's statements. He's now admitting what everybody but conservatives already knew.

The special counsel implicitly acknowledged that White House internet data he discussed, which conservative outlets have portrayed as proof of spying on the Trump White House, came from the Obama era.

So there is something to see here. You and every conservative fell for yet another lying conservative narrative. And it is 100% the right wing's fault for propagating this lyinjg narrative. Then we get the classic conservative blunder. You're posting as if trump was spied on. "fox news caused the spying on Trump". you have to learn to let go of false narratives. anyhoo, I found the best response for your post in this thread

It’s what they do.

And the same people fall for it over and over again,and go right back to the same sources for another.

 

[JANFU]

In a filing on Thursday, Mr. Durham defended himself, saying those accusations about his intentions were “simply not true.” He said he had “valid and straightforward reasons” for including the information in the Feb. 11 filing that set off the firestorm, while disavowing responsibility for how certain news outlets had interpreted and portrayed it. “If third parties or members of the media have overstated, understated or otherwise misinterpreted facts contained in the government’s motion, that does not in any way undermine the valid reasons for the government’s inclusion of this information,” he wrote.

...Most important, the coverage about purported spying on the Trump White House was premised on the idea that the White House network data involved came from when Mr. Trump was president. But Mr. Durham’s filing did not say when it was from. Lawyers for a Georgia Institute of Technology data scientist who helped analyze the Yota data said on Monday that the data came from the Obama presidency. Mr. Sussmann’s lawyers said the same in a filing on Monday night complaining about Mr. Durham’s conduct.

Link

Trump said Obama spied on him. Turns out, the government spied on Obama!

I recall reading that after the Russian deep dives into US Govt data systems, Obama and Trump admins released info to select companies to review data traffic independently of the Govt