Despite the fact, Trump is pretending the Durham report isn’t a dud

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In recent years, numerous investigative reports have been released related to Donald Trump’s scandals, and each time, the former president has weighed in on the findings as if he hadn’t read the documents. In fact, when the plain text of the reports didn’t say what Trump wanted them to say, he showed an amazing habit of simply pretending that the truth didn’t mean anything.

Around this time five years ago, for example, Trump claimed that the House Intelligence Committee had completely exonerated him in the Russia scandal. That is not true. A few months later, he said the Justice Department inspector generals office completely exonerated him in the Russia scandal. That’s both wrong and kind of bonkers. In February 2019, Trump also claimed that the Senate Intelligence Committee had also exonerated him in the Russia scandal. This is not.

Or to put it another way, the Republican treats investigative reports the same way he treats election results: They only say what he wants them to say, and he only believes what he wants to believe.

All of this came to mind yesterday, as the former president responded with great enthusiasm to the report from special counsel John Durham. In a series of hysterical missives published on his social media platform, the Republican suggested that the findings of Durham produced evidence of treason and the crime of the century.

Trump insisted the Durham report detailed the Democrat [sic] Hoax perpetrated on me and the American people. At 2:15 am local time, it still seemed to work, he added, THEY CAME UP, LIKE DUMBS ALL THROUGH WASHINGTON, DC

I realize, of course, that Trump is not much of a reader, and the idea that the former president would sit down and go through all 316 pages of the Durham report is patently ridiculous. But like all the other reports that Trump pretends are good news for him, the fact remains that the special counsel’s findings are actually an embarrassing dud. As the Associated Press reported:

Monday’s report from special counsel John Durham represents the long-awaited conclusion of an investigation that Trump and allies say will expose massive wrongdoing by law enforcement and intelligence officials. Instead, Durham’s investigation delivered poor results.

A New York Times report added that findings in the reports revealed little new information about the inquiry and failed to produce the kinds of blockbuster revelations that Trump and his allies had hoped Durham would uncover.

The special counsel’s report included no new indictments and no additional recommendations regarding possible charges. Durham’s lengthy and expensive investigative process in the Russia scandal investigation took longer than Mueller’s original investigation into the Russia scandal came to an ignominious end, not with a bang but a whimper.

For those who might benefit from a refresher you can be forgiven for thinking John Durham’s name is familiar, but I can’t remember why I should care about him lets revisit our earlier coverage and explain how we got to this point.

The original investigation into Trumps Russia scandal, led by then-Special Counsel Robert Mueller, led to a series of remarkable findings: The former president’s political operatives in 2016 sought out, embraced, capitalize, and lied about Russian aid and then took steps to obstruct the investigation into foreign interference.

The Trump White House was not satisfied with the conclusions, but the Justice Department inspector general conducted a lengthy investigation into the Mueller investigation, and not surprisingly, the IG’s office found nothing wrong.

Of course, this only infuriated Trump, so then-Attorney General Bill Barr tapped a federal prosecutor, US Attorney John Durham, to conduct his own investigation into the investigation. It’s been almost four years.

After a long period of apparent inactivity, prosecutors charged cybersecurity attorney Michael Sussmann with allegedly lying to the FBI. The case was found to be unfounded; Sussmann was acquitted; and one of the jurors publicly mocks the Durhams’ team for bringing the case to trial.

Other prosecution attempts also failed, leading to a rather brutal tape story for the special counsel:

By any fair measure, this is the most futile special counsel investigation in modern American law enforcement history.

But the embarrassment is not limited to the prosecutor. From time to time in recent years, Trump has brought up the Durhams’ name, hoping the prosecutor might bolster some of the former presidents’ conspiracy theories. As regular readers will recall, the Republican once even suggested that the Durham investigation could serve as a possible vehicle for retaliation against his perceived enemies.

So much for that idea.

About a year ago, the New York Times’ Charlie Savage wrote a report questioning why the Durham investigation existed. He added, the order of Mr. Barrs to Mr. Durham appears to investigate a series of conspiracy theories.

Those theories, however, fall short of the conclusion that yesterday’s report has not changed.

There is a degree of irony in the events: For years, Team Trump has insisted that the Russia scandal was nonsense but the Durham investigation was real. Now it appears that these Republicans are exactly backwards: The Russia scandal is real, and the Durham investigation is nonsense.

This post modifies our related earlier coverage.

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