John Durham's report issued yesterday after three-plus years of investigation paints a damning picture of a conspiracy among federal officials, leading legacy media, and the Hillary Clinton campaign and Obama administration.  But by issuing no indictments whatsoever, he enabled the complex story to be buried by the same media in a day or two.

Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch summarizes what was proven:

As confirmed by Durham: Obama knew. Clinton knew. Biden knew. Comey knew. Brennan knew. McCabe knew. Strzok knew.Clapper knew.Schiff knew.FBI knew.DOJ knew.They all knew Trump was innocent but they smeared and spied on him. Worse than Watergate. Trump is a crime victim! pic.twitter.com/hnrD3z3KDe

— Tom Fitton (@TomFitton) May 15, 2023

He also summarizes the betrayal of punting on doing anything about what was uncovered:

DURHAM FAIL: @RealDonaldTrump is a crime victim who was targeted by a seditious conspiracy by Obama, Biden, Clinton and their Deep State allies. But Durham let down the American people with few and failed prosecutions. https://t.co/KGPsX72jcJ pic.twitter.com/xBZfiERzCa

— Tom Fitton (@TomFitton) May 16, 2023

There was never any basis for the FBI to have opened its investigation.

"Neither U.S. law enforcement nor the Intelligence Community appears to have possessed any actual evidence of collusion in their holdings at the commencement of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation," Durham wrote.

Recall that James Comey's briefing of Donald Trump on the investigation was the trigger for the media to start the orgy of coverage of the non-scandal, lending an official imprimatur to the false charge that Trump was elected thanks to collusion with the Russians.

The conspiracy continued after this kickoff:

"Based on the review of Crossfire Hurricane and related intelligence activities, we concluded the Department and the FBI failed to uphold their important mission of strict fidelity to the law in connection with certain events and activities described in this report," wrote Durham.

"The FBI personnel also repeatedly disregarded important requirements when they continued to seek renewals of that FISA surveillance while acknowledging — then and in hindsight — that they did not genuinely believe there was probably cause to believe that the target was knowingly engaged in clandestine intelligence activities on behalf of foreign power."

There was a second, equally vital disinformation campaign from the same guilty parties: covering up the actual involvement of Hillary Clinton with the Russians.  Mark Wauck, a retired FBI special agent who knows about the predication necessary to open an investigation, wrote:

Trust me on this — everyone involved knew it was complete b------- from the very start, just like Durham says. Here's a tell on that from Techno Fog. While the Deep State, led by the FBI and DoJ, was targeting Trump based on their hoax, what were they doing about known serious violations by Hillary?

The FBI and DOJ restricted two investigations into Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election:

1) The Clinton Foundation investigation

2) Illegal foreign contributions to the Clinton Campaign

"No investigative activities occurred for months"

 —  Techno Fog (@Techno_Fog) May 15, 2023

According to an FBI CHS in early 2016, the Clinton Campaign was "fully aware" of and "ok with" a foreign contribution in violation of federal law.

The FBI agent didn't get receipts - and asked the source to stay away from the Clinton campaign.

The FBI made "no effort" to investigate "the Clinton campaign's acceptance of an illegal "campaign contribution that was made by the FBI's own long-term CHS."

Preventing Trump from winning, and then ejecting him from office after his unexpected victory, was one strategic thrust of this effort.  But the choice of a fake Russia conspiracy as the means of doing so reveals a larger and longer-term goal, as Wauck posits:

From this perspective we can see that the Russia Hoax play two roles. On the one hand, it would help put Hillary — an indifferent campaigner and shrewish personal presence at best — over the top. But the claim of Russian interference in a presidential election could gin up righteous outrage among the American public and lend support for the coming war with Russia. In the event, of course, Hillary lost. The Russia Hoax ended up being used by the Neocons mostly to tie Trump's hands on foreign policy with regard to Russia. A Hillary regime might have seen a sanctions war to the hilt, such as we now see, before Putin had prepared Russia for that eventuality. Trump's presidency, despite his own sanctions regime, put that plan on hold — thus the undying Neocon hatred for Trump.

However, the DC Establishment rallied around Joe Biden to defeat Trump. Key in this effort, Bluto Barr buried the Hunter laptop, turned a blind eye to the prospect of massive election fraud and to Antifa violence — beyond protecting a few public buildings — and enabled Durham's slow walking of the Russia Hoax investigation, with nothing really to show for it except confirmation of the bleeding obvious. And so here we are. The Ruling Class got Biden installed in the White House, they got their war, and now America is facing geopolitical defeat on a grand scale thanks to our corrupt Ruling Class. You have to wonder. But for the Russia Hoax, would the war on Russia even have been possible? 

So here we are, engaged in a proxy war with Russia, holding the world's largest nuclear arsenal.  Putin is in a war that he can't afford to lose, and he is forced into China's embrace, triggering a geostrategic realignment whose consequences are already nearly catastrophic, and risking a nuclear war if Putin gets desperate.

It's hard to think of a more consequential political conspiracy.  And yet nobody will be prosecuted.  Durham must be counted as an enabler of the biggest scandal in American political history.

Photo credit: Official portrait.

Note from Andrea: I agree completely with Thomas's analysis.  And if you're wondering why this feels familiar, think back to James Comey, in July 2016, reciting chapter and verse of all the national security crimes Hillary committed — and then concluding by saying, in essence, "Never mind."  I long suspected that Durham was part of a cover-up, and I think that's proven by his revealing little that wasn't already in the public domain and his utter passivity in the face of a vast fraud on the public that deeply damaged America.