Special Counsel John Durham’s revelation Wednesday at a House Judiciary Committee hearing that the FBI is a corrupt organization with politically biased leadership sparked universal, massive bipartisan shock and horror.
Republicans and Democrats screamed for strict accountability for those guilty of wrongdoing, particularly in the Russia hoax, and demanded sweeping, immediate action to set the powerful law-enforcement agency back on course.
OK, just kidding.
The truth?
Democrats did exactly what the national media did when Durham first made those findings public in his report last month: They skirted over the appalling news — that Durham uncovered proof of obscene political prejudice within the FBI — and pretended any shortcomings within the agency had already been addressed.
The FBI, they insist, is doing an impeccable job, just as it always has done.
What a case of denial.
Indeed, they simply ignored Durham’s scathing message.
“The problems identified in the report are not susceptible to overnight fixes,” the special counsel stressed.
“As we said in the report, they cannot be addressed solely by enhancing training or additional policy requirements.
“Rather, what is required is accountability, both in terms of the standards through which our law enforcement personnel hold themselves and in the consequences they face for violation of laws and policies of relevance.”
In other words, the system as it currently operates isn’t working, and the only way to fix it is with a thorough overhaul.
Durham called the findings of his years’ long investigation “sobering”; if unaddressed, “these issues could result in significant national-security risks and further erode the public’s faith and confidence in our justice system.”
Dems’ answer? We can’t hear you — as they all but held their hands over their ears.
Yet the most urgent parts of Durham’s testimony are beyond shocking:
- The FBI failed to corroborate any of the scandalous allegations from the Steele Dossier but nonetheless carried on its Russia collusion probe for months nonetheless.
- Top agents willfully relied on smears spread by the Clinton 2016 campaign against Trump to justify their investigation.
- The agency had equal reason to initiate an identical probe of Clinton but never did.
In short, partisan agents created a de facto partnership between the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee and the world’s most powerful law-enforcement agency to take down the political opposition.
That is arguably one of the biggest scandals in American history.
Of course, Democrat Rep. Jerry Nadler couldn’t see what the fuss was all about.
He was more interested in knowing why the FBI didn’t harass Trump with more investigating.
“The FBI apparently never even looked at a thumb drive of key evidence related to allegations of contact between the Trump campaign and the Russian government via a Russian cellphone,” whined Nadler.
He also wanted to know why the FBI didn’t check Trump’s private business bank records for some Russia connections.
After four years of investigations by the FBI, congressional Democrats, a special counsel and every major news organization, none of which were able to substantively link Trump to the Kremlin, Nadler seriously wanted to know why more wasn’t done.
That is pathological partisanship if there ever was such a thing.
(Then again, Nadler, who chaired the Judiciary Committee, so fully embarrassed himself with such displays during the Robert Mueller hearings that then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi sidelined him in the Trump impeachment charade, choosing Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff to lead the effort instead. Cringe.)
Other Democrats at Wednesday’s hearing, like Ted Lieu (Calif.), tried to distract, such as by pointing out that of the criminal prosecutions that resulted from Durham’s probe, none led to convictions, while several criminal prosecutions against Donald Trump’s associates did.
It’s pure rubbish: Prosecutions against Trump’s team have always been a matter of venue-shopping.
Try an accused Trump friend in the Washington area and you are all but certain to get a conviction.
Try a person accused of doing something to harm Trump, no matter how outrageously criminal, and you’re staring at an acquittal.
The jury pool is what matters, and in DC, it’s all rabid anti-Trump voters.
Democrats and the media will pretend there’s nothing to what Durham’s saying because they know FBI leadership is on their side.
But make no mistake: He produced a smoking gun, proving compellingly that America’s justice system is badly broken.
Normal Americans should be absolutely furious — and demand the housecleaning Durham recommends.
Eddie Scarry is a columnist for The Federalist.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
