As Townhall reported earlier this week, a D.C. jury — including a number of donors to Hillary Clinton's campaign — acquitted former Clinton lawyer Michael Sussmann of lying to the FBI when he brought debunked claims that the Trump organization was involved with Russia and denied he was working on behalf of a client.
The mainstream media was quick to turn what they had previously called an insignificant legal proceeding into some kind of landmark proof that there was no wrongdoing in their propagation of the Russia collusion hoax. But their seizing on the verdict also sought to change the conversation and public memory of the trial to not include the substantive admissions that were made during the course of the trial. Information that means the first trial to come from John Durham's probe was not a failure or any sort of exercise in futility.
As twice-former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr — who appointed Durham as a special counsel, insulting the investigation against the Biden administration — explained this week on Fox News, there's a significant silver lining to what Democrats are heralding as a win.
Speaking with Jesse Watters, Attorney General Barr said he's "very proud of John Durham" and reiterated that he takes "responsibility for his appointment." After all, without Barr's appointment of Durham, an investigation of the origins of the Russiagate hoax wouldn't have been protected after Trump left office.
Barr continued, saying "I think he and his team did an exceptionally able job both digging out very important facts and presenting a compelling case to the jury." And while the jury's impartiality has received scrutiny, its acquittal of Sussmann can't erase the facts and sworn testimony that were gleaned from the trial. And that's where Barr sees the value in the Sussmann trial — regardless of outcome.
"While he did not succeed in getting a conviction from the D.C. jury, I think he accomplished something far more important which is he brought out the truth in two important areas."
As he explains, Durham "crystallized the central role played by the Hillary campaign and launching as a dirty trick the whole Russiagate collusion narrative and fanning the flames of it," Barr said. "Second, I think he exposed really dreadful behavior by the supervisors in the FBI, the senior ranks of the FBI, who knowingly used this information to start an investigation of Trump and then duped their own agents by lying to them and refusing to tell them what the real source of that information was," he added. "And that was appalling."
Appalling indeed. But now, after the testimony that came from the Sussmann trial, there's more on-the-record information about the very direct role Hillary Clinton herself had in the Russia collusion hoax, as well as how the FBI was weaponized to go against a political enemy — a very real admission of the "deep state" phenomenon that President Trump and conservatives warned of and fought against.
As Vespa reported during the trial, "ex-Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook (yeah, remember him?) admitted that the 2016 October surprise concerning Trump and the Alfa bank was pretty much fake news. The evidence was shoddy, and even the FBI, who was already spying on the Trump campaign and working overtime to manufacture evidence to support this hoax—said there was 'nothing there.'"
Former FBI General Counsel James Baker testified that after the #FBI investigated the allegations of the covert communications channel between #Trump Organization and #Russia's Alfa Bank, the bureau concluded "there was nothing there." #SussmannTrial
— Brooke Singman (@BrookeSingman) May 20, 2022
While not a legal win for those working to hold our government accountable, it is vindication for conservatives who smelled something fishy with the collusion racket from the start. It also provides more information that can be used to prevent the federal bureaucracy from being abused by Democrats to the point it turns into a partisan tool.