The John Durham inquiry appears to be ending quietly

As T.S. Eliot wrote in his 1925 poem, The Hollow Men, “This is the way the world ends: Not with a bang, but a whimper” … and so too has gone the inquiry by Special Counsel John Durham. After three years of investigating the origins of the Russia investigation and whether former President Trump’s campaign had any ties to Russian intelligence, a New York Times report on Wednesday said the grand jury used by Durham to present evidence has expired. The report further stated there are no plans to convene another grand jury and that one of the lead prosecutors in the case is leaving. All this suggests the investigation may be winding down.

Trump and his allies have hailed the investigation as one that would pull the curtain back on a widespread conspiracy within the federal government to sabotage him and his campaign. However, Durham has not put forth any evidence of such a conspiracy. The only cases brought forward as part of Durham’s inquiry involved people allegedly lying to the FBI. One of those charged is a Russian national, Igor Danchenko, and the other is Michael Sussmann, a Washington D.C. lawyer. Sussmannn was accused of lying to the FBI about his ties to the Hillary Clinton campaign when he told the FBI about an alleged back channel between a Russian bank and the Trump Organization. The FBI said he presented himself as a “good citizen rather than a paid advocate or political operative.” Word of the possibility that Durham’s investigation is winding down comes not long after Sussmann was acquitted of charges in May.

The case against Danchenko remains ongoing, with Durham having filed a motion to admit additional evidence in the case earlier this month. That motion was unsealed on Wednesday. Read more on that here.

It’s expected that at some point, Durham will submit his final report on his investigation to the Justice Department. It’ll then be up to Attorney General Merrick Garland to decide whether to make the findings public, per the New York Times.

Trump’s nominee for special master contrasts his frequent protestations about “campaign spying”

Staying in the vein of Russia/Trump campaign stories… After more than four years of former President Trump decrying the Russia investigation as a hoax and claiming that the FBI was spying on his campaign, who did Trump’s attorneys name as someone they like to see serve as special master over the materials seized from Mar-a-Lago? The very judge that Trump claims got that ball rolling.

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Background: Earlier this month, a Florida federal judge agreed to Trump’s request for a special master to review the documents seized from Mar-a-Lago when the FBI searched the place in August. The special master will go through the documents looking for any records that may be covered by attorney-client or executive privilege. The decision by Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump-appointed judge, has brought on widespread criticism in the legal community. Nevertheless, following Cannon’s order, both the Justice Department and Trump’s lawyers submitted names of who they would like to see appointed as special master.

One of the two names proffered by Trump’s team was former federal judge Raymond J. Dearie. Dearie is seen as a neutral choice by many and even the DOJ told the court it would be fine with Dearie being appointed.

And while it’s surprising that Trump’s lawyers and the DOJ would agree on anything in this case, the very proposal of Dearie by Trump is equally shocking.

First, many believed Trump would put forth only extremely favorable candidates because… well, why not?

Second, the choice of Dearie is perplexing since it was Dearie who originally approved the warrant for the FBI to begin surveilling former Trump campaign advisor Carter Page.

Even more background: In October 2016 the FBI asked a federal court to approve a warrant to wiretap Carter Page’s communications over concerns he may have connections to Russian intelligence. Page was on the FBI's radar as early as 2013 and worked for the Trump campaign from March to September 2016. The FBI's warrant application states that it believed “the Russian Government’s efforts [to interfere with the 2016 election] are being coordinated with Page and perhaps other individuals associated with Candidate #1’s campaign.” Candidate #1 being Donald Trump.

Since the wiretaps came to light, Trump has relentlessly claimed that he was the target of a widespread conspiracy within the government to sabotage him and his campaign with false allegations of Russian collusion. He claims a key factor in that conspiracy is the alleged spying on his campaign by the FBI through wiretaps of Page’s communications (this, of course, ignores the fact that Page had left the Trump campaign by the time the FBI requested its warrant).

The results of the Russia investigation and whether the FBI’s surveillance of Page was appropriate are beyond the scope of this post, but it is confounding that after all of the bombastic rhetoric by Trump about the FBI’s actions, all his protestation of innocence and victimhood, all his claims of “witch hunts” and “hoaxes” … Trump’s team would move to recommend the very judge that agreed to push the snowball down the hill in the first place? Why?

The next time I hear Trump complain about FBI spying, the “Russia hoax”, and “deep state conspiracies”, I’ll be wondering why — if he found what happened with the FBI and Carter Page so detestable — would he nominate Dearie of all people?

Quotes that provoke

• “So often the right answer is a third way … So often decisions come to us as a binary choice: You must do X or Y. And the right question to ask always is, is there a third way we’re not thinking about here?” ~ Barb McQuade

  • Barb McQuade is a former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan and this quote is from one of my favorite podcasts, #SistersInLaw. I thought this quote is a good rule for life. It’s easy to fall into binary traps and it’s important to remember that sometimes there are more options in life than we realize.

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Life updates

I’m in Iowa this week to visit with family. We’re celebrating the first birthday of my nephew, Max! It's a wonderful break from the hustle of New York City. We visited an orchard that had a bunch of fun things to do for the kids such as hayrides, animal feeding, and slides. Perhaps the best thing was a ball pit that, instead of being filled with balls, was filled with millions of kernels of corn! The kids loved rolling around in it. Iowa sure living up to one of its stereotypes with that one!