Right-wing media has been wetting themselves over a court filing by Bill Barr henchman, John Durham. He has the title of special prosecutor, but I call him Bull. Bull, Durham.

Team Bull has spent nearly $4 million investigating “spying” on the 2016 Trump campaign. The allegation by Trumpers is that Hillary (But Her Emails) Clinton was behind a smear campaign aiming to link Team Trump to the Russians. No one has been indicted on the underlying crime if, in fact, there is one at all.

Charlie Savage of the NYT has been all over the Durham investigation and calls bullshit:

But the entire narrative appeared to be mostly wrong or old news — the latest example of the challenge created by a barrage of similar conspiracy theories from Mr. Trump and his allies. Upon close inspection, these narratives are often based on a misleading presentation of the facts or outright misinformation. They also tend to involve dense and obscure issues, so dissecting them requires asking readers to expend significant mental energy and time — raising the question of whether news outlets should even cover such claims. Yet Trump allies portray the news media as engaged in a cover-up if they don’t.

It’s as if the Durham probe were funded by the My Pillow Guy and advised by Rudy Giuliani. It’s all a feeble attempt to justify claims of persecution by former President* Pennywise.

Another Charlie, Charlie Pierce, is both shaken and stirred by the Other Charlie’s savaging of the probe:

The whole Durham “investigation” is a travesty of a mockery of two shams. It can go on the same shelf of the historical archives as Whitewater, the Billing Records, the Death of Vince Foster, and, yes, Her Emails. It exists only as shabby camouflage, and there will be more of this as the heat on the real scandals turns up. If there’s any justice left in the real world, all those chickens will discover that every roost is a rotisserie spit.

I wish I had said that myself. That’s why I quoted Charlie’s piercing insight into the Durham bull.

The special prosecutor poked his head above the parapet to wash his hands of the wingnut media coverage of his court filings:

“If third parties or members of the media have overstated, understated, or otherwise misinterpreted facts contained in the Government’s Motion, that does not in any way undermine the valid reasons for the Government’s inclusion of this information.”

In a word: defensive. I feel a country song coming on:

In my legal docket posts I typically don my lapsed lawyer hat and do some legal analysis but there’s nothing to analyze here. It’s a pretext for the Impeached Insult Comedian to do his Festivius grievance shtick. He talks loudly and carries a small stick. I know where it should be placed…

Let’s circle back to the Bull Durham advertising sign. Unlike Bull Durham smoking tobacco, there’s nothing genuine about the Durham probe. And it’s certainly not the “standard of the world.” The best that can be said for it is that it won’t give you cancer but it’s still Bull, Durham.

I kept the swell Ron Shelton/Kevin Costner/Susan Sarandon movie out of the post. Until now. The last word goes to Pat McLaughlin with a song from the Bull Durham soundtrack: