Special Counsel John Durham on Monday presented the results of a four-year investigation into alleged ties between Russia and Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign without the “storm” the former president predicted at the start of the investigation.
Durham found that the FBI relied heavily on “raw and unconfirmed” intelligence to investigate ties between Moscow and the then-Republican candidate.
However, the results of the investigation fell short of the expectations of Trump and his aides, who claimed the report would reveal “misdemeanors” committed by the agents.
Despite expectations that Durham might indict senior government officials, His team achieved only three prosecutions.
A former FBI lawyer has pleaded guilty to tampering with an email the FBI requested to spy on a former Trump campaign adviser.
Two other defendants, a Clinton campaign lawyer and an analyst with a Russian-American think tank, were acquitted on charges that they lied to the FBI.
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Why is the Special Counsel criticizing the FBI’s performance in the Trump and Russia investigations?
In the roughly 300-page report, Durham says there were a series of “missteps” by the FBI and Justice Department as investigators launched the politically explosive investigation in the heat of the 2016 election, seeking to determine whether whether the Trump campaign was colluding with Russia. Tilt the result in their favor.
Durham criticized the FBI for launching an entire investigation based on “raw, unanalyzed and unconfirmed intelligence”. and said that the speed at which the questioning was done affected the outcome.
The special counsel said investigators repeatedly relied on “confirmation bias,” ignoring or rationalizing evidence that undermined their premise of a Trump-Russia conspiracy, while pursuing the investigation.
“Once again, the FBI’s failure to critically analyze information that contradicts the narrative of collusive ties between Trump and Russia is highly problematic,” the report said.
“Crossfire Hurricane” was the FBI code name for their investigation.
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What effect does the report have on the FBI investigation?
The report’s impact, while sharply critical of the FBI, was likely influenced by Durham’s spotty prosecution record and the fact that Many of the seven-year cases you cited have already been thoroughly reviewed by the Justice Department’s inspector general.,
The FBI also announced dozens of corrective actions long ago. Still, Durham’s findings could escalate the FBI investigation as Trump again seeks the White House, and also provide further ammunition for congressional Republicans who have accused the FBI and Justice Department of their investigation into alleged “politicization.” has started.
Referring to corrective actions taken since 2016, the FBI said such “missteps” could have been avoided.
, Had those reforms been implemented in 2016, the mistakes identified in the report could have been avoided., “This report reinforces the importance of ensuring that the FBI continues to conduct its work with the rigor, fairness and professionalism that the American people deserve and expect,” the FBI said in a statement.
The FBI text also emphasizes that the report focused on previous leadership of the FBI before current director Christopher Wray took office in 2017.
Trump claimed on his Truth social platform that the report showed the American public had been “ripped off”.
The former president cited the report’s conclusion that there was insufficient evidence to warrant a full FBI investigation, but the results released by Durham fell short of the expectations that Trump and his allies had placed on their investigation.
Trump has long claimed that members of the “Deep State” (a term referring to an alleged secret government operating through a network of covert power groups to advance goals parallel and independent of legitimate government) are improperly were attacking him.
Last year, Trump said he believed the Durham report would provide evidence of “really bad, evil, illegal and unconstitutional” activities and “corruption on a scale never seen before in our country.” The results shown this Monday don’t come close to such claims.
Special counsel John Durham, who has been appointed to investigate possible FBI improprieties into ties between Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign and the Russian government, leaves federal court in Washington, May 16, 2022.
What other findings came out of the Durham Inquiry?
But Mueller’s team was unable to uncover evidence that Moscow colluded with the former president’s campaign to directly influence the election, creating an opportunity for critics of the investigation, including Barr himself, to To claim that his investigation was blown. ,
The original Russia investigation was opened in July 2016 after the FBI learned from an Australian diplomat that a Trump campaign aide named George Papadopoulos claimed to know about alleged “dirty acts” in Hillary’s emails.
But revelations in subsequent months exposed flaws in the investigation, including errors and omissions in the Justice Department’s requests to spy on Carter Page, a former Trump campaign aide, as well as the FBI’s reliance on an information file . Christopher Steele, a former British spy.
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How was the investigation by Special Counsel John Durham?
Durham and his team interviewed top officials from the FBI, the Justice Department and the CIA.
In his first year in office, Durham traveled with Barr to Italy to meet with government officials as Trump himself asked the Australian prime minister and other leaders to help with the investigation.
Trump irritated by the slow pace of the investigation who reprimanded Barr before leaving office for the delay in releasing the results.
By the end of the Trump administration, only one criminal case had been launched, while the abrupt departure of Durham’s top deputy prosecutor in the final months of Trump’s term raised questions about the coordination of the team.
