![]() ![]() Trump repeatedly asserted that members of the Obama administration had spied on his campaign and committed "the biggest political crime in American history" by trying to sabotage his presidency. "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 states. Strzok, Durham wrote, "at a minimum had pronounced hostile feelings toward Trump," and the investigation was opened "without ever having spoken to the person who provided the information" claiming there was collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Both men were fired from the FBI in 2018. Durham was then named special counsel by Barr in October 2020, weeks before the presidential election.Īs part of his 48-month probe, Durham was tasked with examining the following: whether there was adequate predication for the FBI to open its Crossfire Hurricane investigation whether the opening of the probe was consistent with FBI policy whether there was evidence that the actions of FBI employees or third parties violated the law and whether the Justice Department provided false information on applications for electronic surveillance.ĭurham's report takes aim at the officials working in the upper ranks of the FBI when its investigation into the Trump campaign and alleged ties to Russia was opened, namely Andrew McCabe, then the bureau's deputy director, and Peter Strzok, then the deputy assistant director for counterintelligence. ![]() attorney in Connecticut, in May 2019 to investigate the origins of the FBI's "Crossfire Hurricane" investigation, which later was taken over by special counsel Robert Mueller. Then-Attorney General Bill Barr selected Durham, who was at the time the U.S. Jim Jordan, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, said he has reached out to the Justice Department to have Durham testify next week. This report reinforces the importance of ensuring the FBI continues to do its work with the rigor, objectivity, and professionalism the American people deserve and rightly expect." Had those reforms been in place in 2016, the missteps identified in the report could have been prevented. The bureau said in a statement that "the conduct in 20 that Special Counsel Durham examined was the reason that current FBI leadership already implemented dozens of corrective actions, which have now been in place for some time. The FBI, under Director Christopher Wray, had implemented a number of reforms before the Durham report was released, a point that it noted in responding to the release of the report. The third, a former FBI lawyer, pleaded guilty. Though Durham had broader powers than the Justice Department's watchdog, he pursued prosecutions of just three people, two of whom were acquitted. That investigation identified several procedural errors, but overall concluded there was no "political bias" at the bureau. Much of the information disclosed in Durham's report was revealed in a 2019 examination conducted by the Justice Department inspector general into the origins of the FBI's probe into possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. Attorney General Merrick Garland received the report from Durham on Friday, and it was transmitted to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees on Monday. The release of Durham's roughly 300-page report Monday comes four years after his investigation into the actions of the FBI in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election began. Washington - John Durham, the Trump-era special counsel tasked with scrutinizing the origins of the FBI's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, has concluded his sweeping examination into the bureau's conduct, finding the Justice Department and FBI "failed to uphold their important mission of strict fidelity to the law" regarding the events during the 2016 campaign. Special Counsel John Durham releases report on FBI's Russia investigation 02:16 ![]()
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