Jonathan Turley takes media to task for Russiagate coverage: 'The most essential player in this conspiracy'

Constitutional lawyer Jonathan Turley called out the media on Wednesday for its part in promoting the Russiagate theory following the release of the Durham report, which determined that the Trump-Russia probe was illegitimately launched.

In an unforgiving op-ed published Wednesday by the New York Post, Turley said the report implicated the Clinton campaign, the FBI and the media as key participants who propagated the Russia collusion narrative by amplifying "a plot to create a false claim of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government."

After breaking down the collective effort on behalf of the Clinton campaign and the Justice Department in the collusion conspiracy, Turley turned his attention to the media, scolding the liberal pundits and other members of the press who spent years pushing the collusion narrative.

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"The most essential player in this conspiracy was the media, which pumped up the [Steele] dossier as gospel," Turley, a Fox News contributor, wrote.

The Steele dossier, which has been largely discredited, contained allegations of purported coordination between Trump and the Russian government. It was authored by Christopher Steele, an ex-British intelligence officer. The Clinton campaign and the DNC funded the dossier through the law firm Perkins Coie, where Clinton lawyer Marc Elias was employed at the time. The dossier helped serve as the basis for the controversial Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) against Trump and was key in launching the Russia probe.

"On MSNBC, Rachel Maddow assured her viewers that 'no major thing from the dossier has been conclusively disproved. On CNN, one of the guests insisted, ‘I think we… actually have to stop calling it the ‘infamous dossier’ and increasingly calling it ‘accurate dossier,’ the ‘damning dossier.’' CNN host Alisyn Camerota attacked Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and said the dossier ‘hasn’t been discredited, in fact, it has been opposite, it has been corroborated,’" Turley wrote.

"Durham has laid out how the most cited claims were not supported, let alone corroborated. Indeed, he found there was no basis for this investigation to have been launched in the first place," the George Washington University law professor went on.

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But aside from pushing the debunked collusion theory, the media also glamorized - and in some cases employed- the "culprits" responsible for triggering the years-long probe without any consideration for accountability, Turley said.

"Like in ‘Murder on the Orient Express,' all of the culprits were then let go. "[Former FBI Director James] Comey went on to make millions selling books and giving speeches on ‘ethical leadership.’  Former FBI special agent Peter Strzok was given a job by CNN," Turley observed. "Clinton general counsel Marc Elias is advising people on election ethics and running a group to 'defend democracy.' 

"After all, this was a collective effort," Turley continued. "In Washington, the more people involved in a conspiracy, the less culpable it becomes. They all did it, so no one did."

Durham’s 300-page report indicated the Department of Justice and FBI "failed to uphold their mission of strict fidelity to the law" when it launched the Trump-Russia investigation that never found any collusion to begin with.  Those allegations against Trump of collusion with the Kremlin lasted for years during Trump’s first term in office, but Durham concluded that it was based on faulty evidence. 

The finding was welcomed by Trump, who told Fox News Digital Monday that former FBI Director James Comey and Democrats need to be held accountable for the "long-running and treasonous charade." 

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But in the days that followed, the establishment media worked diligently to dismiss the report disproving one of its beloved talking points – that the assertion the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election was bogus all along. 

MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough called it a "dud," and CNN media reporter Oliver Darcy called it a "debacle" in his emotional newsletter. MSNBC's Andrew Weissmann, a former top prosecutor in the Russia investigation, downplayed the findings as "a big fat nothing," while MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace, one of the most rabid Russiagate proponents in cable news and a staunch Democratic Party sycophant, compared the report to a "rabbit-hole conspiracy."

Fox News' Brooke Singman and Brian Flood contributed to this report.