Transcending even the importance of the very good question, “Where is Hunter?” is today’s reemergence of the following far more significant question that for many Americans has now lingered for much too long:
“Where the hell is Durham?”
For those who understandably may have forgotten, Durham is the federal prosecutor whose only available photo appears to be the one infrequently shown on the evening news bearing a facial expression that resembles the scowl of a pissed-off gopher. But, if this isn’t enough to jog your memory, he’s the guy who was appointed, now several years ago, by the recently departed Attorney General William Barr to investigate—and perhaps even prosecute?—certain government officials who many have been led to believe—based on incontrovertible facts?—allegedly attempted a coup d’état to overthrow a duly elected President of the United States.
So, some might ask: in light of everything else that is going on around our country and in the world, why is this important now?
It is because of the insult delivered to America by the sentencing last week of the only participant in this criminal conspiracy who has ever been charged and convicted of any crime since Durham took charge—Kevin Clinesmith.
And what was his punishment for intentionally working with others—including Brennan, Clapper, Rosenstein, Comey, Strozk and Page et.al.—to assassinate the presidency of Donald Trump?
Twelve months probation.
What? Really?
Admittedly, Clinesmith is the proverbial Skippy Smallberries among a cast of characters that included actual heavyweights who were allegedly involved with him in this outrageous conspiracy. But, really … even for him … no jail time? Just a few months probation?
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The last time America looked, participation in any insurrection, sedition or treason intended to overthrow the government of the United States was a big bad for which many imagined the penalty would be—and should be—severe. However, that apparently is no longer the case when the matter is set before a judge whose sentencing of Clinesmith indicates he may side with the conspirators.
But, that’s not the entirety of the insult delivered to America by this mere slap on the wrist for the crime Clinesmith admitted to committing—his intentional forgery of an email he knew would be used by others as a predicate to fraudulently induce a FISA court to unlawfully allow Trump and his allies to be spied upon. Perhaps the greater sting this slap to our nation’s cheek was the message Clinesmith’s sentence conveyed to those Americans who have been waiting and hoping for justice to be delivered: that the legal exposure of the others involved in Clinesmith’s seditious criminal enterprise will also be minimal … if any at all.
The day Clinesmith was sentenced one nationally syndicated conservative talk show host’s paraphrased translation of this implicit message was delivered to America as follows:
Clinesmith’s sentence today should be a wake up call to those listeners out there still hoping to see Durham finally arrest people like Clinton, Comey, Stozk, Brennan, Mueller and Clapper. If you’re one of these people, let me tell you something that by now should be clear. You’d be better off to just forget it. It probably isn’t ever going to happen.
Sadder still, this message was delivered even by this talk show host with a tone of voice that suggested his agreement with the position that, if you are one of these listeners clinging to such empty hopes, you must be some kind of unsophisticated rube who is in need of an education as to how things work in the real world.
But in the minds of many such Americans here is why it is so very important that both he and the judge must be found wrong.
Because, Americans know that, if their government is allowed to disparage our notions of justice before our very eyes, it will also necessarily be trashing other absolutely vital principles that are incorporated in, and foundational to the notion of what justice is—and must be—for our nation to remain the great example to the world of what liberty and freedom is supposed to look like. For true justice is the culminations of other invaluable principles at play in America that are not often exhibited elsewhere in the world.
True justice, for instance, requires the rule of law to prevail over the rule of man. Which, in turn, requires by definition that all people will be treated equally under the law by their government. And that equality, in turn, is absolutely necessary for all to enjoy the benefits of certain rights bestowed upon us by our Creator, which for that reason alone were revered by our founders as unalienable by the constitutionally-based government they sought to establish.
For the Founders knew that any government that is allowed by its people to untether itself from the constraints placed upon it by such moral absolutes, can only eventually result in a nation in which the only rights remaining to the people will be those that are authorized to exist by a government run by flawed humans beings. That is, a government that will eventually vest those few in power with an unchecked license to rule the citizens of America as they see fit—a government that given time can only evolve into some form of totalitarian tyranny, if it hasn’t already.
Perhaps this will help explain why so many Americans remain committed to insisting that their government restore, deliver and guarantee justice in this nation. Quite simply, they are hoping to avoid becoming shackled by exactly the type of tyrannical government from which our nation’s founders placed their very lives in jeopardy to free themselves—and us—from bondage.
In short, for those Americans whose thinking has not been muddied by the dogmas of cancel-culture, justice is and will always remain a foundational imperative that is necessary for them to hold to the belief that we still have a government that is committed to the preservation of the most basic God-given rights to which they were raised to believe all mankind should entitled: i.e, the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
That, in a nutshell, is perhaps why so many millions of people in this nation—who are not rubes—continue to ask:
Where the hell is Durham?
Clifford C. Nicholsis the author ofA Barrister’s Tales.
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