Don't Hold Your Breath, Durham Unlikely to Go After Hillary & Powerful US Bureaucrats, Journo Says

Ex-Clinton campaign manager Robert Mook admitted under oath that Hillary Clinton greenlit the spread of the Trump-Alfa Bank story to the press even though the narrative's accuracy rang alarm bells. Following the exposure, former Trump officials and conservative media pundits raised awareness about Hillary's role in peddling the Russia hoax.

On 23 May, former President Donald Trump released a new ad on his platform Truth Social targeting Hillary Clinton, after ex-Clinton 2016 presidential campaign manager Robert Mook admitted that she had okayed feeding the Trump-Alfa bank story to the press. The story alleged that there were backchannel communications between the Trump Organisation and Russia's Alfa Bank, something that was later rejected by the FBI as a nothingburger.

"They tried to steal the 2016 election by spreading the Russia hoax", the ad said. "Trump was right. Hillary fabricated the Russia hoax".

The same day, former Pentagon Chief of Staff Kash Patel gave an interview to investigative journalist John Solomon stressing that "Hillary Clinton not only knew about it, authorized it, approved it, paid for it, and told them to go leak it to the media, so that her and Jake Sullivan can go out the next day and act all surprised".

Still, even though the revelation appears to implicate Hillary Clinton, it's unlikely that she will be held responsible, believes Jason Goodman, an American investigative journalist and founder of Crowdsource the Truth. He warns against underestimating the fact that Mook is a "defence witness".

"The optimists may disagree, but I for one do not believe Mook would say or do anything that Hillary Clinton did not want him to", says Goodman. "What I expect next is some argument from the defense that will defang any potentially threatening information and likely render that testimony or any related evidence inadmissible, such a move would go a long way in the court of public opinion because it would help Hillary paint all of these allegations against her with a false claim that there is no 'there' there".

Special Counsel John Durham, who was tasked with looking into the origins of the Trump-Russia probe back in 2019 by then Attorney General William Barr, "has a stellar reputation for investigating corruption", as The Washington Post noted in December 2019. Legal observers are wondering whether the Durham probe will be focused solely on Michael Sussmann and his apparent lying to the FBI, or whether the special counsel will go after a "bigger fish", meaning top Clinton campaign officials, Hillary Clinton, and FBI leadership.

According to Goodman, one shouldn't hold one's breath, because "William Barr would not have put anyone in charge of anything if he weren’t confident that person would continue to cover up the real crimes of the US Bureaucratic State".

"Bill Clinton is alleged to have been involved in Iran-Contra both in the cocaine importation from Nicaraguan Contras into Mena Arkansas by the CIA and later the controversial pardon of Marc Rich", the investigative journalist says. "William Barr was George H.W. Bush’s right-hand man since he was a cub going to law school on the CIA’s dime. With the recent publication of Barr’s book 'One Damn Thing After Another', Barr reveals a depth to this relationship that may not have been previously understood. Barr explains in the book how he sat with Bush in the Church Committee hearings and advised him on responses to the committee".

In this Oct. 15, 2020, file photo Attorney General William Barr speaks during a roundtable discussion on Operation Legend, a federal program to help cities combat violent crime in St. Louis. Attorney General William Barr said Tuesday, Dec. 1, that the Justice Department has not uncovered evidence of widespread voter fraud and has seen nothing that would change the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.

© AP Photo / Jeff Roberson

Sussmann Trial & Potential Conflict of Interest

Howard Louis Carr Jr., an American conservative radio talk-show host, also appears to be sceptical about Mook's bombshell remarks and the outcome of the Sussmann's trial.

In his latest op-ed for the Boston Herald, Carr alleged that there is a potential conflict of interest pertaining to the ongoing trial. In particular, he argued that among the jurors, there are people who donated either to the Hillary Clinton campaign or to other Democrats, or have a spouse who worked on Hillary’s 2008 campaign. On the other hand, the presiding judge is Christopher "Casey" Cooper, appointed by former Democratic President Barack Obama after his service on the Obama 2008 transition team.

Cooper is married to attorney Amy Jeffress, whose client is ex-FBI lawyer Lisa Page, who used to work with the FBI team investigating the Trump-Russia "collusion". At the same time, the wife of former Clinton campaign operative Jake Sullivan, Maggie Goodlander, serves as a counsel to incumbent Attorney General Merrick Garland, John Durham's "boss", according to Carr. "It’s a small world, isn’t it?" he wrote. "If John Durham gets a conviction, it’ll be a miracle".

"I do not think the judge is necessarily doing anything inappropriate", says Goodman. "There is a very rigorous procedure that is followed in US Courts. Lay people would like to see any perceived wrong to be righted in the course of serving justice at any particular trial; however this is not the way it works. The judge will only preside over claims within the so called four corners of a document. New information could give rise to future proceedings in some situations, but Hillary Clinton will not be on trial in this Sussmann case".

In a just world Mook's testimony would translate into a new investigation against his former boss and the campaign, but it will not happen, according to the investigative journalist.

"If Donald Trump could not muster a Hillary Clinton trial, a DOJ controlled by Joe Biden (or at least presided over him while sleeping) will not", Goodman concludes.