Durham testimony gets raucous

Special Counsel John Durham testified before the House Judiciary Committee, mainly defending his report on FBI investigations of Donald Trump. Before the session ended, he caught flak from Democrats and at lease one Republican, for diametrically opposite reasons.

John Durham goes to Congress

When John Durham took his seat at the green table, the House Judiciary Committee became a veritable battleground of invective. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Memphis, Tenn.) tried to threaten Durham with loss of reputation. He emphasized the lack of convictions from Durham’s prosecutions of various figures, and suggested the very purpose of Durham’s investigation was “to hurt the Mueller report” and ultimately “to help Trump.” Then he said that “everybody’s reputation who gets involved with Donald Trump is damaged.”

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) asked whether the Committee could presume that Cohen was “undecided on how he feels” about Trump. But John Durham himself gave perhaps the best response.

My concern about my reputation is with the people who I respect, my family, and my Lord — and I’m perfectly comfortable with my reputation with them, sir.

That response drew applause from the spectators.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) no longer sits on the House Intelligence Committee, but apparently still sits on the Judiciary Committee. So he used his time to accuse the special counsel of trying to influence an inspector general. The special counsel shot back:

Schiff wasn’t done, and tried to offer as proof a rumor that Donald Trump, Jr. had received information “that a Russian official was offering the Trump campaign ‘very high-level and sensitive information’ that would be incriminating of Hillary Clinton.” Durham discounted that completely, saying:

1. That phone call was a ruse, and
2. Phone calls from people telling spurious tales are common in politics.

Matt Gaetz weighs in

The special counsel further suggested that Adam Schiff himself might have experience with spurious tips. According to The Western Journal, this could be a reference to a phone call Schiff did receive from two men posing as a Ukrainian businessman and his associate. But, per The Daily Mail, those two were Russian comedians, and their call was a prank.

Furthermore, after Schiff’s session with the special counsel, the House censured him and referred him to the Ethics Committee.

But Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) was clearly disappointed in Durham’s prosecutorial performance. According to Red Voice Media, Gaetz said Durham was “part of the cover-up.”

At one point Rep. Gaetz compared the special counsel to the Washington Generals basketball team. The Tampa Free Press describes them as an exhibition team who regularly throws games with the Harlem Globetrotters.

The problem, as Gaetz sees it, is that Durham overlooked key players that were part of or close to the FBI and the Hillary Clinton campaign.

The special counsel did emphasize that the FBI itself ignored the Clinton campaign’s role in trying to link Trump to Russia. (See reports from One America News, Just the News, and Valiant News.)

He even said several FBI agents apologized for their own role in the Crossfire Hurricane investigation, according to The Daily Signal.

But that did not satisfy Rep. Gaetz, who pointed out several avenues of investigation the special counsel himself overlooked.