Durham witness, FBI analyst Brian Auten, testifies that Danchenko is innocent of four of the five counts he is being tried for.
https://twitter.com/adamgoldmanNYT/status/1580348868029399040
You’re forgetting the actual purpose of these indictments. They’re not to prove crimes, convict the guilty, or to see justice be done. They’re a politically motivated attempt to whitewash the Trump/Russia connections and to provide cover for Trump’s idiotic assertions about the Mueller investigation. That’s been the entirety of the goal from day one when Barr started the investigation.
In other news, an FBI agent testified yesterday that Barr’s ordering of the FBI to declassify information about Danchenko and provide it to Lindsay Graham was “dangerous”, burned Danchenko as a valuable FBI informant, and harmed our national security.
Judge dismissed the charge related to Dolan. The other four, which Durham’s witness testified Danchenko was innocent of, will go to the jury.
Per Julia Jester (NBC).
So the judge dismissed one count, and the other four counts are the ones Brian Auten testified that Danchencko believed he was being truthful in his accounts. So unless the jury completely disregards Auten’s testimony, the second of only two indictments that Durham managed to get to trial is about to end in acquittal.
The upshot of this seems to be the Steele dossier is not going to be proven a “fake,” just unverified. Reminds me of the Bush TANG “AWOL” documents that were not proven to be fake, just could not be proven to be authentic…a subtle but important distinction.
(side note: That whole episode stank of Karl Rove…)
This is a thing that really happened. Not a SNL sketch. This actually is reality.
I love pulling that out when Karl’s name is mentioned.
Parts are unverified, parts are verified.
The actual documents that were acquired by and used by Dan Rather were proven to be fake, IIRC(They were printed on a printer that didn’t exist at the time), but that doesn’t mean that the information in them was.
It’s stranger to me to see Brad Sherwood hosting that event.
Colin Mochrie was also on stage. It was a couple of the Whose Line Is It Anyway? regulars with them.
Reminds me of Mr. Bean dancing.
The case is in the jury’s hands.
Forgive me, I meant to say “not proven to be authentic.”
Verdict(s) coming soon:
Acquitted!
The most unsurprising acquittal ever (gift link)
I’d be willing to transfer one of my SDMB badges to Durham.
I feel like it’s simultaneously the least, and the most, I can do.
Inflation is really hitting home. How much did this nothing-burger cost?
Well, the Russian investigation was not a hoax, the one conviction Durham got was of so little import the guy didn’t spend a day in jail, and, again, Sam, this high-level effort to discredit the Steele dossier was another bust.
Personally, I’m having trouble parsing this
There was no conspiracy, but they did communicate on how to influence the election?
I wondered if this particular sound of air being slowly let out of a balloon was to be found on Fox News and was shocked to see it front and center. Then I read the comments and found out why they would highlight it:
- Deep state!
- FBI needs to be gutted!
- Hunter walking around a free man shows what a joke our justice system is!
It is there to rabble up the rubes.
Crack prosecutor:
As someone who read the full Mueller report, it’s my view that whether there was a conspiracy is a question that remains unanswered. Mueller’s team was thwarted in so many ways with so many potential perpetrators given so much protection from Barr’s DOJ and Trump himself (dangling of and actual pardons, restrictions on what Mueller was permitted to investigate, e.g.), they were unable to reach an actual conclusion to the question.
In the Obstruction portion of Mueller’s final report, he specifically spoke to the fact that it was impossible to fully investigate the Russian Conspiracy part of the report due to these obstacles.
Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, Steve Bannon, Michael Flynn and Erik Prince are the most likely suspects who provided linkage between the Russians and the Trump campaign. All were provided protection by Trump and his DOJ to varying degrees.