In April 2019 then-Attorney General William Barr appointed John Durham as special counsel to investigate the origins of the Russia collusion hoax. Since then, we’ve heard nothing from Durham, moving Donald Trump to ask whether Durham even exists. In fact, there is a theory that Durham doesn’t exist. Instead, says the theory, he’s a made-up figure created solely to push a fake narrative about a non-existent investigation.

Wikipedia has John Durham’s bio. The short version is that he’s a Massachusetts native who graduated from law school in 1975, spent two years as a VISTA Volunteer on the Crow Indian Reservation in Montana, and then began a lifetime career as a government attorney, working for five years for the State of Connecticut and then, in 1982, becoming a United States prosecutor. In that role, he successfully prosecuted several racketeering and organized crime cases and brought down corrupt politicians in Connecticut.  

He was appointed as a special prosecutor during the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations. Under Clinton, he investigated whether FBI informants James “Whitey” Bulger and Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi had corrupted their handlers (yes, they had). Under Bush, he looked into the CIA’s destroying videotapes of detainee interrogations (apparently not). And under Obama, he investigated the legality of enhanced interrogation techniques (which seemed to have petered out).

In April 2019, William Barr announced that John Durham would be special counsel leading an investigation into the origins of the Russia collusion hoax. This ought to have been easy. Congressional hearings, FOIA document releases, and dogged work by citizen investigators made it clear that the entire Russia collusion narrative was a work of fiction that the Hillary camp advanced with the help of compliant and dishonest FBI and CIA agents.

For the next year and a half, conservatives were consistently assured that Durham would soon be handing down indictments. They’ll be coming next week…next month…in six months…. And always, thanks to organizations such as Judicial Watch, there’d be more incriminating FOIA-released information that Durham should already have found.

Then, the day before the election, a left-leaning magazine reported that Durham had found absolutely nothing. Considering the plethora of undisputed, publicly available information about lies and manipulation from government insiders (most of whom now are making bank working for left-leaning media or publishing books), this was surprising. And still, Durham continued as special counsel, a position he occupies to this day.

On Friday, Trump finally released a statement plaintively asking if Durham even exists: “Where Durham? Is he a living, breathing human being? Will there ever be a Durham report?” 

Funny you should ask that, Mr. President, because a few weeks ago a site called We ♥ Trump posited that, while John Durham may once have existed, he doesn’t anymore:

I’m talking about why a man with such a storied and PUBLIC career does not have a single video existing of him anywhere online.

I’m not talking about videos about a certain topic or recent videos or videos of his personal life.

No, I’m saying not one single video of the man exists online!

Oh, and only 4-5 pictures exist of him.

That’s it.

A man who has led such a long and storied public career, and it’s as if he doesn’t actually exist.

Yes, I’ve read his bio.

Yes, I’ve seen his Wikipedia page.

Yes, I know he is the man who allegedly took down Whitey Bulger.

Yet not one single video can be found.

[snip]

Click into each one of those videos that shows up and you will find the same thing in each one.

You’ll see news anchors talking about John Durham with a still image of his face up on the screen….but nothing else.

No actual video of the man.

Not a video of him holding a press conference, or even some b-roll of him walking into a courthouse….nothing!

Notably, even Trump hasn’t met Durham. That was sold as a virtue – Durham is neutral – but now it’s easy to see it as part of a whole fake narrative about a non-existent investigation. There’s much more about this theory here.

Yes, this is a total conspiracy theory. Please be clear, though, that American Thinker and I are not asserting as fact that John Durham is a convenient government fiction covering Deep State activity. I am just relaying someone else’s observation that neatly ties in with Trump’s recent rhetorical question.

Of course, when it comes to conspiracy theories, if you had told me in January 2020 that America would turn into a weird police state, locked down over a virus that's somewhat more serious than the flu, and that a senile, corrupt, old man with a penchant for fondling little girls, who campaigned either from his basement or before crowds of tens, would win the presidency with more votes even than Barack Obama, well, I would have laughed at that theory too.

IMAGE: John Durham’s famous photo. Public Domain.