Are the Russia hoax’s ‘big fish’ finally in John Durham’s crosshairs? By Andrea Widburg
Of the many positions Kash Patel held during Trump’s presidency, his most important was as an aide to Devin Nunes when the latter worked doggedly to reveal that the Democrats’ Russiagate charges were a hoax coming from the Democrat party—specifically, from Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Given Patel’s insider’s knowledge of events, it means something when he appears on Maria Bartiromo’s Fox show on Sunday mornings and says that he believes that Special Prosecutor John Durham is on the verge of issuing some serious indictments against big players in the Russia hoax.
Patel’s predictions about Durham are the first thing that Bartiromo elicits from him during the interview:
RealClearPolitics has helpfully provided a transcript of the interview:
MARIA BARTIROMO: When do you believe the FBI figured out that all of this was just one political campaign trying to take down another?
KASH PATEL: I think they knew right away.
And the documents that we put out in the Nunes investigation, the Nunes memo and the HPSCI report on Russian active measures show that the FBI knew right away, because their FISA abuse process, now that declassification process is complete, and your viewers can read it, that the FBI knew the information was fraudulent.
They knew the credibility problems with Christopher Steele. And they knew the DNC, through Fusion GPS and Perkins Coie, were piping in tens of millions of dollars into the machine, so that they could get up a FISA warrant on President Trump.
So, I think they knew right away, which is why I think…
BARTIROMO: Wow.
PATEL: … the individuals at the head of the FBI need to be held accountable.
BARTIROMO: Wow. So they knew that it was garbage, and yet they still pursued, pursued, pursued a FISA warrant to wiretap Trump Organization members like Carter Page.
Will John Durham reel in any big fish, in your view?
PATEL: Yes. And let — I believe so.
Let me just put this in perspective. When I was running large-scale conspiracy and fraud investigations, they took me three, four or five years to prosecute. John Durham is only in his second year of the most political scandal in U.S. history.
So I believe, within the next six months, look out for indictments against the folks like Fusion GPS and Glenn Simpson for helping perpetuate this fraud. And look out for individuals like Lisa Page and Peter Strzok. I believe they’re already helping John Durham, they’re cooperating with him to get the bigger fish like the Andy McCabe, who is the biggest fraudster next to James Comey.
I think you’re going to see these indictments start coming out on the individuals at the top. It’s just going to take a few more months, but I remind your viewers it takes a little bit of time to work these matters.
I must admit that I’m not as optimistic as Patel is that the bad guys will get their just desserts. For example, if Lisa Page and Peter Strzok are indeed helping Durham, that means that they cut a deal—and yet it’s clear that they themselves were big fish in the Russia hoax, doing their utmost to destroy Trump’s administration. If Durham doesn’t reel in Comey and McCabe, then what we’ll see will be just a few more “hand slaps” for bad guys.
As Sundance at Conservative Tree House writes, he has a standard disclaimer for Durham stories:
If Special Counsel John Durham was going to reveal what optimistic folks proclaim as possible; how is Durham going to handle the reality that Robert Mueller’s entire existence was in place to hide it?
Or as Don Surber always says, “no excitement without an indictment”—which I mentally amend to read, “no excitement without a meaningful indictment.”
The fact is that the rule of law means nothing in D.C. Trump should have made it his first priority to prosecute Hillary Clinton for violating national security laws. He also should have prosecuted everyone, including those in the FBI, who covered for her, from Comey on down. After all, prosecuting Hillary wouldn’t have been a Lavrentiy Beria-type prosecution (“Show me the man and I’ll show you the crime.”) Instead, Hillary had been caught red-handed deliberately violating very explicit laws.
If Trump had prosecuted Hillary, he would have shown that no one is above the law. By letting her go, the Trump administration established that Democrats are above the law. It was a green light for the Russia hoax that hobbled his presidency.
Last point: Even if Durham does indict the “big fish,” Merrick Garland controls the Department of Justice. Does anyone think that he and his activist minions are going to support Durham’s prosecution? I certainly don’t.
So, while Patel’s predictions are enjoyable, I’m not yet ready to sing Hosannas.
Image: Kash Patel. YouTube screen grab.
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