A special prosecutor came to the conclusion of a four-year investigation that fell far short of the former president’s prediction that the “crime of the century” would be discovered and found that the FBI rushed into its investigation of ties between Russia and Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign and relied too much on raw and unconfirmed intelligence.
The special counsel’s long-awaited report, released on Monday, is the result of a probe that Trump and his friends had promised would reveal serious misconduct on the part of law enforcement and intelligence personnel.
Instead, Durham’s probe produced disappointing outcomes, with prosecutors obtaining a guilty plea from an obscure FBI employee but losing the only two criminal cases they brought to trial.
The almost 300-page report lists the mistakes Durham claims the FBI and Justice Department made during a politically combustible investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 election.
The FBI was condemned for starting a full-fledged investigation based on “raw, unanalyzed, and uncorroborated intelligence,” and the pace at which it did so was seen to be out of the ordinary.
Additionally, it said that as the investigation moved ahead, investigators often used “confirmation bias,” dismissing or explaining away data that contradicted their thesis of a Trump-Russia conspiracy.
“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,” the study’s conclusion reads.
Although Durham’s report is brutally critical of the FBI, its effect is likely muted by Durham’s weak prosecutorial history and the fact that the inspector general of the Justice Department has already thoroughly investigated many of the seven-year-old instances it describes.
Additionally, the FBI has long already made a number of corrections public. In a letter to Durham on Monday, the agency described these modifications, which included actions to guarantee the accuracy of covert monitoring programs used to listen in on alleged terrorists and spies.
“The errors noted in the study might have been avoided in 2016 if those measures had been in place. This study highlights the need of ensuring that the FBI continues to carry out its duties with the rigor, impartiality, and professionalism that the American people rightfully demand. Additionally, it emphasized that the study concentrated on the FBI’s previous leadership, prior to the appointment of current Director Christopher Wray in 2017.
Durham’s conclusions, however, are likely to increase the FBI’s scrutiny at a time when Trump is running for president once again and provide new material for congressional Republicans who are conducting their own inquiry into the alleged “weaponization” of the FBI and Justice Department.
Jim Jordan, the chairman of the Republican House Judiciary Committee, said after the report’s publication that Durham had been asked to appear the next week.
On his Truth Social platform, Trump said that the research demonstrated how the American people had been “scammed.”
Durham, the former U.S. Attorney for Connecticut, was chosen by Trump’s attorney general, William Barr, in 2019, not long after Robert Mueller’s investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia in 2016 came to a conclusion.
A half-dozen Trump associates were found guilty as a consequence of the Mueller investigation, which led to around thirty criminal charges overall and the finding that Russia interfered on the Trump campaign’s behalf and that the campaign appreciated the assistance.
However, Mueller’s team did not discover evidence they had really planned to influence the outcome of the election, giving the door for the investigation’s detractors, including Barr, to claim that it had been started without a solid foundation.
After the FBI discovered via an Australian diplomat that a member of the Trump campaign called George Papadopoulos had claimed to be aware of “dirt” that the Russians had on Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in the form of stolen emails, the first Russia investigation was launched in July 2016.
However, details over the ensuing months exposed flaws in the investigation, including mistakes and omissions in Justice Department requests to listen in on Carter Page, a former Trump campaign adviser, as well as the FBI’s reliance on a dossier of unverified or debunked information put together by a British ex-spy, Christopher Steele.
Durham’s team investigated these errors in-depth and discovered that the probe was launched hurriedly without conducting important interviews or doing a thorough evaluation of intelligence databases. According to the article, the FBI had no knowledge that any members of the Trump campaign had contact with Russian intelligence officers at the time the investigation was launched.
It claimed that the FBI disregarded or downplayed what it claims to be exculpatory material that Trump associates had supplied to FBI confidential informants, and that the FBI did not confirm a “single substantive allegation” in the so-called Steele dossier. This includes downplaying the significance of a discussion in which Papadopoulos vehemently denied to the FBI informant that he was aware of any connections between the campaign and Russia, according to the report.
According to the report, the FBI “should have been forced to question not only the prediction for Crossfire Hurricane, but also to reflect on whether the FBI was being manipulated for political or other purposes” after an impartial and honest evaluation of these information threads. It did not, unfortunately.
Durham’s task during the early stages of the Trump-Russia investigation was to carefully examine executive actions and spot any potential wrongdoing. In a 2019 interview with Fox News, Trump praised Durham’s selection, saying that Durham was “supposed to be the smartest and the best.” He and his followers anticipated it would reveal a “deep state” plot involving the leaders of the FBI and other organizations to sabotage Trump’s presidential campaign and election.
Durham and his team interviewed senior FBI, Justice Department, and CIA officials after casting a wide net. Trump personally urged the Australian prime minister and other world leaders to assist with the investigation when he and Barr flew to Italy to meet with government representatives during his first year on the job.
Barr nominated Durham as a Justice Department special counsel weeks before to his departure as attorney general in December 2020 so that he might continue his job under a Democratic government.
Trump was frustrated with the investigation’s sluggish progress and chastised Barr before he left office for failing to divulge the report’s location. Only one criminal case had been filed by the conclusion of the Trump administration, but the unexpected resignation of Durham’s senior deputy in the closing months of the president’s term prompted concerns about the team’s coordination.
Durham’s team did not bring any charges against high government officials, contrary to expectations.
A former FBI lawyer admitted to changing an email the agency used to get permission to spy on a former Trump campaign adviser. Two more defendants, a Clinton campaign attorney and a Russian-American think tank analyst, were also found not guilty on charges related to lying to the FBI.