"It will take strong men like Durham and Barr, not an obfuscater like Horowitz, to make sure it doesn’t happen again."

Roger L. Simon writes in the Epoch Times that Inspector General Horowitz's report has been made public today.

...Except, within hours of the release of the report, along comes U.S. Attorney John Durham—who has been investigating much of the same territory but with a wider berth and prosecutorial powers— to spoil the occasion:

“Based on the evidence collected to date, and while our investigation is ongoing, last month we advised the Inspector General that we do not agree with some of the report’s conclusions as to predication and how the FBI case was opened,”

Predication is, of course, the heart of the matter. Just why did the FBI open an investigation of Trump-Russia collusion that proved, after nearly two years, to be non-existent? Was there real justification somewhere, no matter how obscure, as the IG suggests, or was it a set-up, as implied in Lee Smith’s recent “The Plot Against the President”?

Durham apparently has found evidence of something untoward. He advised Horowitz of his information at least a month ago, but the IG apparently ignored it or disagreed. This is not a minor difference of opinion. It’s the essence.

So who’s right here?

I’m betting on Durham. Government employees—people in his position—almost never speak out at moments like this, unless they have the goods. It’s not the least bit collegial and could cost them their career. Durham must have been extremely disturbed and concerned the public was being misinformed.

He and his boss AG William Barr have been journeying to Europe on several occasions, gathering pertinent information from intelligence agencies. As Durham points out:

“I have the utmost respect for the mission of the Office of Inspector General and the comprehensive work that went into the report prepared by Mr. Horowitz and his staff. However, our investigation is not limited to developing information from within component parts of the Justice Department. Our investigation has included developing information from other persons and entities, both in the U.S. and outside of the U.S.”

We will have to wait for details of what Durham learned in Italy and the U. K. and elsewhere, but I would suggest it’s time to step back and apply Occam’s Razor (i. e. common sense).

An investigation about which nothing occurred went on for years. What started it? It could have been an accident, though I’m not sure how. It could have been a trigger of some unknown sort, but a “low bar,” as Horowitz infers. Or it could have been deception. Whatever it was—it was wrong. It will take strong men like Durham and Barr, not an obfuscater like Horowitz, to make sure it doesn’t happen again.