The long-awaited report by Special Counsel John Durham tasked to look into the FBI’s investigation of the Trump campaign for Russian collusion was released Monday, concluding that the FBI should have never launched an investigation into the Trump campaign.
Durham’s 300-page report found a damning conclusion: “Based on the review of Crossfire Hurricane and related intelligence activities, we conclude that the Department and the FBI failed to uphold their important mission of strict fidelity to the law in connection with certain events and activities described in this report.”
“Our investigation also revealed that senior FBI personnel displayed a serious lack of analytical rigor towards the information that they received, especially information received from politically affiliated persons and entities,” Durham’s report said, in apparent reference to the Hillary Clinton campaign-funded Fusion GPS “pee dossier” alleging collusion that the FBI relied on to investigate Trump.
Durham said before the allegation from an Australian diplomat that then-Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos told him the Trump campaign had dirt on Clinton, there was no evidence of any Trump campaign collusion with Russia. But despite this “unevaluated intelligence information,” the FBI “swiftly opened an investigation, known as “Crossfire Hurricane.”
Durham wrote:
In particular, at the direction of Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, Deputy Assistant Director for Counterintelligence Peter Strzok opened Crossfire Hurricane immediately. Strzok, at a minimum, had pronounced hostile feelings toward Trump. The matter was opened as a full investigation without ever having spoken to the persons who provided the information.
Durham said the Justice Department and FBI acted without “appropriate objectivity or restraint in pursuing allegations of collusion or conspiracy between a U.S. political campaign and a foreign power,” he said. He also said the FBI used a different standard when it came to looking at Clinton’s campaign.
“The speed and manner in which the FBI opened and investigated Crossfire Hurricane during the presidential election season based on raw, unanalyzed, and uncorroborated intelligence also reflected a noticeable departure from how it approached prior matters involving possible attempted foreign election interference plans aimed at the Clinton campaign,” the report said.
The report also said the FBI received “highly significant intelligence” from a trusted foreign source that the Clinton campaign had a plan to “vilify Trump by tying him to Vladimir Putin so as to divert attention from her own concerns relating to her use of a private email server.”
“Unlike the FBI’s opening of a full investigation of unknown members of the Trump campaign based on raw, uncorroborated information…the FBI never opened any type of inquiry, issued any taskings, employed any analytical personnel, or produced any analytical products in connection with the information,” Durham said.
There was a “predisposition to open an investigation into Trump,” the report said.
Durham slammed the integrity of the FBI.
“The promulgation of additional rules and regulations to be learned in yet more training sessions would likely prove to be a fruitless exercise if the FBI’s guiding principles of ‘Fidelity, Bravery and Integrity’ are not engrained in the hearts and minds of those sworn to meet the FBI’s mission of ‘Protect[ing] the American People and Uphold[ing] the Constitution of the United States,” he wrote.
The report comes as Trump is running for reelection as president. He and his administration faced constant scrutiny under then-Special Counsel Robert Mueller. The allegations of collusion and ongoing investigation sidelined some administration officials, such as then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Establishment media outlets also hyped the allegations, putting the Trump administration under non-stop scrutiny.
Democrat members of Congress such as Reps. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Eric Swalwell also repeatedly claimed there was evidence of collusion, but failed to produce any. Earlier this year, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy kicked both members off the House Intelligence Committee due to their repeated and unfounded accusations of collusion, as well as an alleged sexual relationship with a Chinese spy in Swalwell’s case.
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) tweeted: “We’ve reached out to the Justice Department to have Special Counsel John Durham testify next week.”
This is a breaking news report. Please check back for updates.
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