Durham Didn't Deliver

 

Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann is acquitted of lying to the FBI in the first trial of special counsel John Durham's investigation https://t.co/ddFPzN2GgS

— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) May 31, 2022

Every now and then I just stop myself in the middle of whatever I'm doing and ponder that there is a subset of people in this country who genuinely are like: "Why would there be an investigation into the Trump campaign possibly coordinating with Russian intelligence like that was a bad thing or something?" as if, and no, I don't know how this happened, they do not understand that yes, this would be a bad thing.

While the forewoman of the jury has a point that the charges were a waste of time, I guess we did find out one new thing--the Alfa Bank traffic thing is still kind of a puzzle. But what kind of investigation goes on for three years and at best serves up something that feels like "it should be a crime to do opposition research on Trump, for reasons." Like, the real crime here is noticing that something looks bad. And then for fuck's sake talking about it. 

The hilarity I feel is that this is a standard that doesn't seem to exist with anyone else. I keep saying, "it looks bad because it is bad" because Trump defenders seem to have come to the belief that any criticism or claim against Trump (and associates) is automatically partisan or illegitimate. And yet, from George Papadopoulos to Paul Manafort to Mike Flynn, to OMG Don Jr.'s bizarre sit-down at Trump Tower, from Michael Cohen's Trump Tower Moscow dealings to Jeff Sessions' denial of Russian contacts when he had net with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, to Trump's very public "Russia if you're listening..." shenanigans, etc. something was very obviously up with them. 

Screw the Steele dossier (which plays a part in a future Durham production number); in retrospect the worst things we've learned about the Trump crew came from their very own words and actions. What Durham's doing is a distraction to point fingers at the Clinton campaign or the FBI, but it boils down to something that isn't really criminal, just sad:

No fair peeking at Mr. Trump. No fair telling on him! 

The investigation just has the flavor of a burnt offering to satisfy the palate of the toddler Trump, who insists that everything is rigged against him, and everyone is being so unfair, and he deserves a do-over because of all the big meanies who expected him to not be corrupt and stuff and to be held accountable. 

So, of course Trump's defenders now claim the trial was rigged. The jury was predisposed to be against the Trump campaign. So unfair. Because they still don't get it. The Clinton campaign had every right to be critical (it was a political campaign they were trying to win, for crying out loud) of what turned out to be true: it looked bad.

It was.  Nothing changes that.