YEAH, BUT DURHAM'S THE ONE WHO'S GOING TO DELIVER!:

Justice Department attorneys struggled with mounting frustration and skepticism from a federal judge about producing documents related to the investigation of former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe, according to transcripts of closed-door conversations released in response to a lawsuit from a government watchdog group. 

The McCabe case--and President Donald Trump's personal involvement in it--prompted federal judge Reggie Barnett Walton to call the government's handling of it "disturbing," a "mess," and veering close to a "banana republic."

"I think it's very unfortunate," Judge Walton told prosecutors as the case hung in limbo in late September. "And I think as a government and as a society we're going to pay a price at some point for this."

The comments were made in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) against the Justice Department.

Jordan Libowitz, a spokesperson for CREW, said the eventual release of the court transcripts on Friday, after a lengthy court battle, showed that the government was "trying to cover up the fact that they were stringing this [lawsuit] along while looking for a reason to indict McCabe."

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