After several years and millions of taxpayer dollars spent, special counsel John Durham’s investigation into the origins of the FBI’s Trump-Russia probe face-planted on Tuesday.
And former Attorney General Bill Barr, who initiated the Durham probe in 2020, is having trouble coping with that reality.
To catch up: A jury needed just a few hours to find Michael Sussmann, a former lawyer for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign and a key target of Durham’s investigation, not guilty of lying to the FBI.
Durham said Sussmann met FBI officials in 2016 to discuss alleged communications between the Trump Organization and the Kremlin-linked Alfa Bank. Durham said Sussmann falsely claimed he wasn’t acting on Clinton’s behalf when he tipped off the FBI. A jury disagreed with Durham’s allegation.
This was the first trial stemming from the Durham investigation, which was essentially authorized to placate right-wing conspiracy theorists, including then-President Donald Trump, who claimed the DOJ’s Russia investigation was a collaborative hit job waged by the government and the Clinton campaign.
Sussmann’s acquittal blew a huge hole in that baseless claim.
But, facts be damned, Barr was on Fox News on Wednesday spouting the same conspiracy theories that were undermined by the Sussmann ruling a day earlier. Barr said Durham’s failed case “crystallized the central role played by the Hillary campaign in launching, as a dirty trick, the whole Russiagate collusion narrative.”
Barr: I’m very proud of Durham and I do take responsibility for his appointment. pic.twitter.com/odKy2FaqKG








