"Part Of The Coverup": Gaetz Rips Durham For Failing To Investigate "Core" Of Russiagate

While Special Counsel John Durham may have shown up to testify before Congress on Wednesday - where he excoriated the FBI, CIA and the Clinton campaign over Russiagate, It was Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-CA) who addressed the elephant in the room; Durham's complete lack of effort to pursue key players and facts behind the Russiagate operation.

Durham was testifying before the House Weaponization Committee to discuss the FBI's 'investigation' into then-presidential candidate Donald Trump's 2016 campaign, known as the "Crossfire Hurricane" investigation, when Gaetz laid into him, accusing him of going soft on certain figures such as the FBI's former chief of counterintelligence, Bill Priestap, who avoided questioning.

Priestap would eventually admit in April 2020 to withholding information which would have rendered the Steele Dossier unuseable by the agency.

"It’s kinda laughable. It seems like more than disappointment. It seems like you weren’t really trying to expose the true core of the corruption. That you were trying to go at it another way," said Gaetz.

To which Durham replied: "As we said in the report, and I said in my opening remarks, we pursued the facts as best we could."

Gaetz also asked Durham why he didn't investigate why the entire Mueller team was allowed to wipe their cellphones at the same time, before the Inspector General could review them.

"How about this fact, Mr. Durham: The entire Mueller team does a hard reset on their Apple phone, in synchronization, to wipe away evidence. Did you investigate that?" asked Gaetz.

To which Durham replied: "I regret that."

"Why didn’t you investigate it? Who gave the order on the Mueller team to wipe the phones?" Gaetz continued.

"That was not something that we were asked to look at," replied Durham.

To which Gaetz shot back: "No, that’s not true, Mr. Durham, that is not true," citing the charging document which outlined the scope of Durham's investigation, and then accusing the investigator of being "part of the coverup."

"I don’t know if you’ve ever investigated a crime—" Durham said, defensively.

Gaetz cut him off...

"I don’t know that you have," Gaetz replied. "You didn’t investigate these, Mr. Durham. How about Andy McCabe? Did you charge him? Did you investigate him?"

"I don’t know, sir, whether or not you’ve ever had the occasion to try to investigate crimes under the rules and regulations and under the Constitution that we are bound by. … We can’t charge people because we might think something—" Durham continued.

To which Gaetz replied: "It’s not that you didn’t charge, you didn’t investigate. You didn’t investigate the Mueller team wiping their phones, and you won’t tell us who gave the orders because you’re protecting these people."

Gaetz also hit Durham with a devastating analogy;

Gaetz: "Have you ever heard of the Washington Generals?
Durham: "The Washington Generals? Yes, I have."
Gaetz: "They're the team that basically gets paid to show up and lose, right."
Durham: "Well, I'm sure the players who exert blood, sweat and tears don't view it that way, but you might."
Gaetz: "I think they do because the job of the Washington Generals is to show up every night and play the Harlem Globetrotters."

According to Gaetz, Durham is part of the coverup.