John Durham's 'embarrassing' testimony shows why his probe was 'bungled from the start': legal experts

Former special counsel John Durham testified before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday and saw his findings get picked apart by multiple Democratic lawmakers, including Reps. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Jerry Nadler (D-NY).

Schiff in particular pelted Durham repeatedly about former President Donald Trump's actions throughout the 2016 campaign, where he openly encouraged the Russian government to hack his opponent's emails and where his son took a meeting with a Russian agent promising dirt on said opponent.

Durham at times appeared to be unfamiliar with some of the facts mentioned by Schiff, including the fact that Trump repeatedly encouraged people to read the hacked Clinton campaign emails that were stolen by Russian intelligence services and spread via WikiLeaks.

This exchange in particular drew the attention of some legal experts who said it showed that Durham was way out of his depth.

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"This is embarrassing," commented former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance on Twitter after seeing that Durham said, "I really don't read the newspapers" in response to one of Schiff's questions.

National security attorney Bradley Moss, meanwhile, expressed astonishment at Durham's ignorance about Trump's behavior.

"This was the grand savior of Trump's vengeance quest?" he asked. "No offense to Durham, but you don't have to read newspapers to know this stuff. It was in the Mueller Report. It was in the GOP Senate Report. This is why this probe was bungled from the start."

And New York University Law professor Ryan Goodman highlighted how Durham seemed unfamiliar with the Mueller report's findings about how former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort met with a Kremlin-connected agent and gave him internal campaign polling data.

"Schiff is very effective at this," Goodman remarked. "It goes to the very heart of Durham’s fundamental flaws. And Durham is being completely exposed here."