John Durham, Trump, And Jim Jordan Get Exposed In Hearing Backfire

Jim Jordan's decision to bring John Durham before the House Judiciary Committee to testify backfired in a big way.

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John Durham Gets Exposed By Adam Schiff

If there was one five-minute segment that summed up the hearing and John Durham’s testimony, it was the grilling put on Durham by Rep. Adam Schiff.

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Transcript:

Schiff: As an illustration of this, both Mueller and congressional investigations found that Trump's campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, was secretly meeting with an operative linked to Russian intelligence named Konstantin Kilimnik. Correct?

Durham: That's my understanding, yes. 

Schiff: And that Manafort, while chairman of the Trump campaign, gave that Russian intelligence operative the campaign's internal polling data. Correct?

Durham: That's what I've read in the news. Yes.

Schiff: And that Manafort provided this information to Russian intelligence while Russian intelligence was engaged in that social media campaign and the release of stolen documents to help the Trump campaign. Correct?

Durham: You may be getting beyond the depth of my knowledge, but —

Schiff: Well, let me say very simply. While Manafort, the campaign chairman for Donald Trump, was giving this Russian intelligence officer internal campaign polling data, Russian intelligence was helping the Trump campaign, weren't they?

Durham: I don't know that. 

Schiff: You really don't know those very basic facts of the investigation?

Durham: I know the general facts. Yes. Do I know that particular fact myself? No. I mean, I know that I've read that in the media.

Schiff: And are you aware, Mr. Durham, that Mueller and congressional investigations also revealed that Don Jr. was informed that a Russian official was offering the Trump campaign, quote, “very high level and sensitive information,” unquote, that would be incriminating of Hillary Clinton, was part of, quote, “Russia and its government's support of Mr. Trump.” Are you aware of that?

Durham: Sure. People get phone calls all the time from individuals who claim to have information like that.

Schiff: Really, the son of a presidential candidate gets calls all the time from a foreign government offering dirt on their opponent? Is that what you're saying?

Durham: I don't think this is unique in your experience.

Schiff: So you have other instances of the Russian government offering dirt on a presidential candidate to the presidential candidate's son. Is that what you're saying? 

Durham: Would you repeat the question?

Schiff: You said that it's not uncommon to get offers of help from a hostile foreign government or a presidential campaign directed at the president's son. You really stand by that, Mr. Durham? 

Durham: I'm saying that people can make phone calls making claims all the time — that you may have experienced.

Schiff: Are you really trying to diminish the significance of what happened here and the secret meeting that the president’s son set up in Trump Tower to receive that incriminating information? You're trying to diminish the significance of that. Mr. Durham?  

Durham: I'm not trying to diminish it at all, but I think the more complete story is that they met, and it was a ruse and they didn't talk about Mrs. Clinton.

Schiff: And you think it's insignificant that he had a secret meeting with the Russian delegation for the purpose of getting dirt on Hillary Clinton. And the only disappointment expressed in that meeting was that the dirt they got wasn't better. You don't think that's significant?

Durham: I don't think that that was a well-advised thing to do.

Schiff: Oh, not well advised.

Durham: Right.

Schiff: Well, that's the understatement of the year. So you think it's perfectly appropriate or maybe just ill-advised for a presidential campaign to secretly meet with a Russian delegation to get dirt on their opponent? You would merely say that's inadvisable?

Durham: If you're asking me what I’d do, I hope I wouldn't do it. But it was not illegal. It was stupid, foolish, ill-advised. 

Schiff: Well, it is illegal to conspire to get incriminating opposition research from a hostile government that is of financial value to a campaign. Wouldn't that violate campaign laws?

Durham: I don't know. I don't know all those facts to be true.

Schiff: Well, your report Mr. Durham doesn't dispute anything Mueller found. Did it?

Durham: No. Our object, our aim was not to dispute Director Mueller. I have the greatest regard, highest regard for Director Mueller. He's a patriot.

Schiff: The only distinction between his investigation and yours is he refused to bring charges where he couldn't prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. And you did. 

Adam Schiff exposed John Durham as an investigator who willfully ignored the evidence that was before his eyes in order to pursue a partisan narrative.

As we will discuss below, the questioning of Durham by Democrats exposed Durham, Trump, and Jim Jordan.