Eli Lake: Trump, Russiagate, and the End of FBI Credibility
The Durham report is a "black eye" for the FBI, leading Democrats, and the media, says Lake.

This is the audio version of The Reason Livestream, which takes place every Thursday at 1 p.m. Eastern.
Our topic was the release of and reaction to the Durham report, an investigation into the FBI's probe of possible collusion between former President Donald Trump's campaign and Russian government actors during the 2016 election. Our guest was Eli Lake, host of the Re-Education podcast and a contributor to Commentary and The New York Sun.
"If the Durham report shows anything, it is that the FBI leadership bent over backward to protect [Hillary] Clinton's campaign while launching a full investigation into [Donald] Trump's campaign on the thinnest of pretexts," he wrote in a recent article for The Free Press.
Lake says the 306-page report from special counsel John Durham, released to the public on May 15, is a "black eye for the FBI," which he says was sloppy, inconsistent, and possibly "helped inject what may have been Russian disinformation into the American political discourse."
Related episodes and links:
- "Should Anyone Be Offended by Kanye West? Live With Eli Lake"
- "Jacob Siegel: 'Disinformation' Is the Hoax of the Century"
- "Beverly Gage: The Dark Truth About J. Edgar Hoover's FBI"
- "From Russiagate to the MyPillow Guy, Let's Stop With Electoral Conspiracy Theories"
- "How the United States Can—And Cannot—Help Iranian Protesters"
-
"The Deep State's 'Political Assassination' of Michael Flynn Was an Epic Abuse of Power"
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Anyone who has been paying attention even just the last few years knows how corrupt the FBI is. Lying labs, known incapable forensic techniques, entrapment, medieval interview recordings. And that's just the basics -- then you get into the partisanship choices of what crimes to investigate. After that, the pure political agendas.
Go back to the early days when J Edgar was just building its reputation of going after rum runners and white slavery.
The FBI has never been competent or capable or neutral.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The end of government credibility.
There is only one way to regain it, by law, criminalize lying.
Autism?
"Stupidity" is sufficient and simpler.
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But it has been better than the current version of the FBI. I do agree with you though, the FBI has never been capable or neutral, but J.Edgar Hoover kept both parties politicians in check with his spying on them and keeping track of their nefarious activities. On the other hand Obama corrupted the FBI to ignore the Democrats corruption and go after the opposition and the common law abiding citizens, which is a huge difference.
This is the podcast that MikeSarcJeffPlug will definitely not listen to.
Why would you leave Sullumbout of th hat list? Man has been staunchly behind every FBI lie aimed at Trump for the last 8 years.
Don't forget that ENB said the report was a big waste of money. One wonders what she thinks about her own magazine paying attention to it.
Pretty sure Reason has a pair of Irish Sunglasses over this and the Biden stuff
Related to the topic: DHS funds program that classifies Republican Party as "far right extremist" organization with links to Nazis
This stuff is deliberately being floated to justify further repression when the time is deemed right.
Related to the topic: IRS Targeted Biden-Critical Journalist on Two Suspicious Dates, Letter Reveals
Related to the topic: The FBI Knows What Car Was Used In J6 DNC Pipe Bomb, But Refuses To Identify Prime Suspect
Is sanity beginning to return?
I've noticed a few other such fainting spells of sanity, not just about transgenderism, but about climate alarmunism, such as Germans not liking the Green Party as much. Fingers crossed. My expectation has always been that these liars will end up ripping into each other, it's what usually happens, as with the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks, Trotsky and Stalin, Hitler and Stalin, Khrushchev and Stalin, Mao and Stalin (hmmm, what a pattern). I just don't know how much longer they can dodge the truth and keep their internecine battles behind closed doors. A year? 5? 10?
Sounds like genocide to me.
Is sanity beginning to return?
It this is a sign, then maybe we can get the women out of Augusta, the YMCA, and the Boy Scouts.
My longtime Usenet ally, Christopher Charles Morton, wrote in the comments section of a Cleveland Plain Dealer article (back when they had comments sections) that the Democrats' Russian Collusion®™ conspiracy theory was just like the 1919 German ultrarightwing's Stab in the Back®™ conspiracy theory.
Sadly and tragically, the Democrats behaved more like the German ultrarightwing circa 1919 than Chris could have ever imagined.
Cleveland Plain Dealer article (back when they had comments sections)
Newspapers were supposed to be a one-way street. They should have never been a two way street, allowing their readers to chime in.
The Plebs have an annoying tendency to be skeptical of The Narrative, therefore they do not need to be heard from.
Still going with sloppy and inconsistent? Not like a coup or an insurrection? Reason sure loves them some deep staters. I'm sure a stern letter and a whole lot of arched eyebrows will solve the problem. Carry on libertarians.
The regime media has lost its credibility too.
Just gotta love how Reason compares 'Russia-gate' (a few dozen people in Russia running Trump advertisements) to Mr. Pillows an IP log data showing China IP connections to ballot counting machines.
Same, Same..... Ya; right. What a load of BS.
As I mentioned last night, a key point comes at about an hour in when they are talking about Flynn. Zack and Nick start piling on Flynn, and Eli stops them. Paraphrasing, he says, "His denials of the 2020 election were wrong, but what are we to expect. His entire life was ruined by people trying to overturn the results of the 2016 election."
Think on that. All the people who get all huffy and self righteous about Trump refusing to accept the 2020 election should take a moment to really look at what happened. The Durham Report shows that from the day he was in office, partisans were unethically and insidiously trying to undo the 2016 election. Trump spent 4 years with people trying to steal the election in 2016.
I don't care if people sympathize with Trump. He is a blowhard. And I still hope he never again gets near the oval office. But I care much more about a government that refuses to listen to The People and takes it upon itself to meddle in elections. If this government keeps pulling this shit, the next Populist to get in power isn't going to just hold a speech a mile away from congress. They won't bother. They will become everything that people accused Trump of being. They will weaponize civilian militias and even our own military. And they will purge and purge until we are the same shell of a republic that Rome was after Caesar was done.
What wpuld be the downside?
Exactly. This is what I find totally mind blowing. Leave Trump himself out of it. I’m shocked that the Deep State influenced an election and tried to subvert the will of the people. They continue to meddle and subvert with shielding Biden Inc, hiding the J6 footage, not answering about the pipe bomb at the DNC. Their reply about Ray Epps is basically a no comment. If Nick thinks we have the craziest crop of Republicans, what does he think of this crop of Democrats? What does he think about the DOJ, an oxymoron btw.
Tag team trying to undermine the guest. Two more with a hard on for Trump.
How anyone can take him seriously is like a plate of arepas untouched
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