Durham Dug Deep – But Marc Elias Skated. Here’s Why That Matters.
Let’s talk about something that still sticks in the craw of a lot of regular Americans.
Back in 2016, a high-powered Washington lawyer named Marc Elias played a central role in efforts to tie Donald Trump to Russia.
Years later, Special Counsel John Durham investigated the whole mess. The probe cost taxpayers millions. It confirmed serious problems with how the FBI launched its Trump investigation.
Marc Elias was never charged with anything.
That’s worth sitting with for a moment.
Elias served as general counsel for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee. He worked out of the powerful D.C. law firm Perkins Coie.
According to court records and Durham’s findings, Elias hired the opposition research firm Fusion GPS. That firm then contracted former British spy Christopher Steele.
The result was the now-infamous Steele dossier – a collection of unverified claims about Trump and Russia that the Clinton campaign and DNC quietly funded through Perkins Coie, burying the payments in legal expense line items.
Durham’s team documented how that opposition research made its way to the FBI, helping fuel the Crossfire Hurricane investigation into Trump’s 2016 campaign.
That’s not a small thing. That’s using law firm billing codes to launder political dirt into a federal investigation.
Elias was also coordinating with his Perkins Coie colleague Michael Sussmann on a separate set of claims – alleged secret computer links between the Trump Organization and Russia’s Alfa Bank.
Sussmann took those allegations to the FBI, falsely claiming he wasn’t there on behalf of any client. A jury later acquitted him on that charge.
But here’s what Elias himself testified to in the Sussmann trial: he had briefed Clinton campaign officials on the Fusion GPS research. He told them about the “fruits” of that work.
Durham’s report painted a picture of a coordinated campaign-level operation to push these stories into the hands of federal investigators and the media.
Think about that for a second
If a regular citizen tried to spread unproven stories to get the FBI surveilling their neighbor, they’d face serious scrutiny.
Here we had well-connected campaign lawyers using millions in political money to do something like that on a national scale – targeting a presidential candidate.
And the tab for the investigation that followed? That was on you, the taxpayer.
Svetlana Lokhova, a British historian who cooperated with Durham’s team, has gone on record claiming Durham’s investigators had planned to go after Elias and others – but faced political interference from the Biden-era DOJ.
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>Marc Elias was going to be indicted by Special Counsel Durham for his role in the conspiracy against President Trump. <br><br>I spoke to the Durham investigators for nearly four years, so I am very familiar with their strategy<br><br>They gathered all the evidence of the conspiracy, a lot of… <a href=”https://t.co/MFVi2httt9″>https://t.co/MFVi2httt9</a></p>— Svetlana Lokhova (@RealSLokhova) <a href=”https://twitter.com/RealSLokhova/status/2058021704899924006?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>May 23, 2026</a></blockquote> <script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>
Whether a full indictment was ever truly close, the public record confirms Durham’s report raised serious questions that never produced high-level accountability.
Elias didn’t disappear after 2016.
He launched his own firm and runs Democracy Docket, an organization that litigates election law cases across the country – including right here in Nevada.
In a state where election integrity debates are very much alive – from mail-in ballot security in Clark County to voter roll questions in rural communities – the same networks that were involved in 2016’s controversies continue to shape how elections get litigated today.
Elias has aggressively fought efforts to tighten voting rules, framing them as threats to democracy. His supporters say he’s protecting ballot access. His critics say he’s protecting outcomes.
You can decide which it looks like to you.
The Russia probe consumed this country for years. It burned through federal resources. It poisoned public trust.
And by Durham’s own findings, much of it was built on a foundation laid, at least in part, by a Clinton campaign lawyer who walked away without a scratch.
Law and order is supposed to apply to everyone – not just the people who can’t afford a Perkins Coie billing rate.
As new leadership takes hold in Washington, Nevadans – and Americans everywhere – are watching to see if this time, that principle actually means something.
The opinions expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Nevada News & Views. Digital technology was used in the research, writing, and production of this article. Please verify information and consult additional sources as needed.
