Release of Special Counsel John Durham’s report on law enforcement and intelligence misconduct related to the 2016 presidential election has been met with outrage, recriminations, and a justified amount of vindication for those, including President Donald Trump, who helped expose the brazen operation from the start.
Trump is taking a well-deserved victory lap, to the extent one can be had, punctuated with angry denunciations of the scandal’s perpetrators. Conservative media is carefully dissecting the report to confirm once again the existence of what can only be described as a legitimate seditious conspiracy—not the phony January 6 sort—concocted by the country’s most powerful interests to take down a duly elected president. U.S. Representative James Jordan (R-Ohio), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, invited Durham to testify next week.
Unfortunately, the collective reaction is an exercise in futility. No one, as many observers readily admit, will be held criminally responsible. The corrupt scheme’s collaborators receive book royalties, speaking fees, and coveted gigs at cable news outlets and nonprofits rather than lengthy prison sentences despite Senator Rand Paul’s wishcasting.
Some, including Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, populate the upper echelons of the BIden regime. Biden himself played a key role in perpetuating the destructive lie.
But relitigating the past in the public square, as vindicating as it may feel, is fruitless. The same corrupt elements are still at work, taking aim not just at Trump but his allies and voters in the shadow of another national election. Trump summed up the current threat in a message posted Wednesday morning on Truth Social.
Trump’s unjustified optimism in the final sentence notwithstanding, he is correct. Attorney General Merrick Garland’s handpicked special prosecutor, a man who has not been seen in public since his appointment more than seven months ago, is hauling everyone from Mar-a-Lago maids to former Vice President Mike Pence before grand juries considering charges against Trump for his role in January 6 and the handling of classified documents. A steady drip of leaks from Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office keeps Trump’s suspected criminality on the front pages; at the same time, Smith refuses to disclose the names of taxpayer-paid staff conducting the unwieldy investigations.
Federal indictments are imminent.
Just a few blocks east of Smith’s office sits the office of Matthew Graves, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. The Biden appointee is under fire for his dismal record of prosecuting criminals in the nation’s capital amid a violent crime wave while dedicating ample resources to the ongoing manhunt for mostly nonviolent Americans who protested Biden’s election on January 6.
Lay-up guilty verdicts rendered by juries made up of voters in the country’s most Democratic city serves the dual purpose of burnishing Graves’ résumé for a future cabinet spot and thickening Smith’s evidence file. As I explained here, the seditious conspiracy convictions of four members of the Proud Boys bolster Smith’s behind-the-scenes attempts to seek the same charge against Trump.
