Bill Barr’s Durham scheme just fell flat

| 2:51 pm EDT August 14, 2020
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For months Donald Trump, his allies, and his fans have been betting that an investigation by U.S. Attorney John Durham into the original Trump-Russia investigation was somehow going to uncover a massive deep state conspiracy that was going to magically tilt public opinion in Trump’s favor.

Now Durham has revealed his findings: one former FBI lawyer, acting on his own accord, altered one document in an overzealous attempt at getting a FISA warrant against Trump adviser Carter Page. Durham’s filings confirm that this one lawyer’s actions were not part of any broader conspiracy, and that the FBI was not acting with any political bias when it investigated the Trump-Russia scandal. In other words, the Durham thing is already basically over.

So much for Bill Barr being able to use the Durham probe as some kind of ground-shaking October surprise. So much for Donald Trump being able to criminally indict President Obama and Joe Biden before the election, or whatever hallucinatory fantasy the optimists within Trump’s base and the fatalists within the Resistance were insisting would happen. Trump will insist that this one guilty plea from a random nobody is somehow proof that he was conspired against, but no one outside his base will carfe. This literally won’t gain Trump a single additional vote.

This is the latest reminder that no one on either side of the political spectrum ever has a magic wand. Nor are the doomsday pundits ever correct when they histrionically insist that one specific scheme is going to magically hand Donald Trump the election. It’s also a reminder that Bill Barr isn’t particularly good at this henchman thing. His Durham scheme has fallen flat. Yes, he’ll try again. But his next scheme likely won’t get him anywhere further than his last few failed schemes have gotten him.

Elections aren’t won by magic wand. Nor are they won by nervously fretting over what might be coming. They’re won by focusing on things like voter registration, voter turnout, volunteering, and changing one voter’s mind at a time. While Trump’s fans waste their time counting on fantasies to carry them to victory, let’s use this time to get to work!