John Durham's failed investigation comes with a hefty price tag

[LetMyPeopleVote]

TFG was hoping that the Durham investigation would clear him. This so-called investigation was an expensive failure

Link to tweet

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/john-durhams-failed-investigation-comes-hefty-price-tag-rcna63330?cid=sm_npd_ms_tw_ma

Special counsel John Durham’s investigation proved to be a rather embarrassing failure. As The Washington Post reported, it also proved to be quite expensive.

The special counsel appointed to review the FBI’s investigation of the 2016 Trump campaign has so far cost taxpayers more than $6.5 million, according to a Justice Department report released Friday. ... The special counsel’s work appears to be winding down, but the Justice Department has not yet announced when it will end.

In other words, the $6.5 million figure — in taxpayer money — is where things stand now. It’s difficult to say with confidence how much higher the final price tag will eventually end up......

The tale of the tape is brutal:

Two trials
Zero convictions
One provocative resignation
A largely meaningless guilty plea from an obscure figure
A $6.5 million price tag

By any fair measure, this is the most misguided and inconsequential special counsel investigation in the modern history of American law enforcement......

There is a degree of irony to the circumstances: For years, Team Trump insisted that the Russia scandal was pointless but the Durham investigation was real. It now appears these Republicans had it exactly backward: The Russia scandal was real, and the Durham investigation was pointless

[Quakerfriend]

1. I think Ken Starr spent 70 million.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

2. Folks asked why Garland didn't shit this down. First it's special counsel, so don't think can.

Second, sad Durham was foisting himself on his own petard…so, carry on sir!

Does the price tag for this political witch-hunt include his legal fees??

Taxpayers want the money back for that at least! Incompetent representation of the taxpayer!

[Bernardo de La Paz]

3. Gym Jordan's investigation will be more expensive & just as useless (of FBI investigation of tRump).

[cbabe]

4. Nice work if you can get it. (sarcasm)

[Mr. Ected]

5. That's a helluva price tag for kabuki theater

Like all their "investigations" it's all for show, all for the rubes. Legitimizes the lies for them.

[Botany]

6. "John Durham's failed investigation." It was not a failure* it was success because it kept the ....

... story about Putin's Alfa Bank > 2,000 contacts with the one of the Trump's campaign computer
server having > 2,000 connection from April to early Oct. 2016 out of the news.. Alfa Bank's
computer also had 200 or 300 connections with Betsy DeVoss (Erik Prince's sister) computer in
Michigan @ the same time. And just by chance Prince met with a Russian agent, a Saudi money
man, and some kind of shady middle eastern middle man at some bar in the Seychelle Islands in
Jan. of 2017. BTW the Seychelle Islands are really in the middle of no place.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/10/15/was-there-a-connection-between-a-russian-bank-and-the-trump-campaign

* It was a kamikaze mission

[Turbineguy]

7. Other peoples' money wasted.

Republicans don't count that.

[yardwork]

8. How much did all the Benghazi ""investigations" cost?

This expensive political theater has been going on for too long.

[peppertree]

10. Or that pedophile Ken Starr's!?

I remember every single Repug I knew in Orange County at the time being utterly convinced it would result in Clinton's resignation and (along with Hillary) his imprisonment.

It was Starr who ultimately went to jail instead.

[ProfessorGAC]

11. You Forgot "Rape Apologist"

Starr did that, too!

[peppertree]

15. Sure! Hypocrisy was about the only thing he excelled at

That twisted bastard is the number one reason we later got Bush - and everything that followed...

[Genki Hikari]

19. Uh--No. Starr never went to jail

He was forced to resign as university president & chancellor after the sexual assault scandal at Baylor, but he never faced any criminal consequences for it.

Or for anything else.

[peppertree]

20. True. I'm confusing him with Hastert the Bastert.

But then - the two no doubt had so much in common (except, perhaps, dietary habits).

[ProfessorGAC]

22. Don't Feel Bad

You just confused the two.
I had to sit at the same table with Hastert at banquets in my credit union board days.
Loathsome in person, too! And, that was before we knew all his sexual predator stuff.
Everything you probably think about him would be accurate. Dumb, pompous, arrogant, annoying. And, would not shut up, even when everyone was eating dinner.
An awful piece of work.

[peppertree]

23. Thanks for sharing those anecdotes, Professor.

A real treat - even in this case.

It's always good to hear first-person accounts of these public figures, good or bad. They are a part of history after all.

It figures that all the bad history Dennis the Menace left us, would be matched by his own very boorish persona (bad breath and all, I bet).

The closest I ever came to that, was (briefly) meeting Trent Lott during my high school graduation. He was congenial - in that feigned, cookie-cutter politician/used car salesman way. Liked having his picture taken a lot (even with the Black students, believe it or not).

That said - Thanks again!

[Joinfortmill]

9. End this fiasco already.

[jaxexpat]

12. It is only through corruption or incompetence that such a thing could ever come to pass.

It is both. That should be obvious to every honest and discerning mind. For the last 24 months it has lain in the lap of the current AG.

When an effort proves itself to be pointless or backward focused there's no purpose to it and no law that demands it be seen to its conclusion. The DOJ is hopeless so long as its energies are exploited thus.

[republianmushroom]

14. Mueller's Investigation

Mueller's investigation
no trial
Zero convictions
Let time run out
33 million price tag
Still hidden by redactions

23 months and counting

[Hermit-The-Prog]

16. Not quite...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criminal_charges_brought_in_the_Mueller_special_counsel_investigation

[republianmushroom]

17. thank you it is good to see that 33 million was not a total waste.

[calimary]

18. John Durham came straight outta Central Casting.

Somebody on the trump team, maybe trump himself, took one look at the guy with his fierce scowl and that intimidating beard/moustache combo domination his face, and they were SOLD.

They went all in on this “junkyard dog” look, and it’s been looking a lot more like “junkyard fog.”

[RANDYWILDMAN]

21. The repubs only know one book, The emperors new clothes

and the stupid ass public falls for it EVERYFUCKING time and the corporate media helps them tell the same stupid tale....