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The US special prosecutor has ended a four-year investigation into possible wrongdoing by the FBI in the investigation of ties between Russia and Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign with dry criticism of the bureau, but little court records that do not match the predictions of the former president that he will find. “crime of the century.”
Monday’s report from special counsel John Durham represents the culmination of a long-awaited investigation that Trump and his allies claim will expose gross wrongdoing by law enforcement and intelligence officials. However, Durham’s investigation produced disappointing results, with prosecutors securing guilty pleas from the infamous FBI employee, but losing only two criminal cases to trial.
The roughly 300-page report outlines what Durham said was a series of mistakes by the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice as investigators conduct an explosive political investigation in the heat of the 2016 election that will examine whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to tip the results. .
It criticized the FBI for opening a full-scale investigation based on “raw, unanalyzed and unconfirmed intelligence,” saying the speed with which it was conducted was a departure from the norm. And he says investigators have repeatedly relied on “confirmation bias,” ignoring or misrepresenting evidence that undermines the premise of a Trump-Russia conspiracy as they push the probe forward.
“Again, the FBI’s failure to critically analyze information that contradicts the narrative of collusive Trump/Russia ties exhibited throughout Hurricane Crossfire is deeply troubling,” the report said. Crossfire Hurricane is the FBI’s code name for the investigation.
New fodder for Republicans
The impact of Durham’s report, while highly critical of the FBI, may have been tempered by Durham’s prosecution record and the fact that many of the seven-year episodes have been thoroughly investigated by the Justice Department’s inspector general.
The FBI has also long since announced dozens of corrective actions.
Still, Durham’s findings may increase FBI scrutiny as Trump seeks the White House and will also provide fresh fodder for congressional Republicans who have launched their own investigations into the “weapons” of the FBI and Justice Department. .
The FBI published a letter to Durham outlining the changes that have been made, including measures to ensure the accuracy of secret surveillance applications to eavesdrop on suspected terrorists and spies. He also stressed that the report focused on previous leaders.
“Had these reforms been implemented in 2016, the errors identified in the report could have been prevented. This report reinforces the importance of ensuring the FBI continues to do its work with the rigor, objectivity, and professionalism that the American people deserve and expect,” the FBI said in a statement.
Durham, a former U.S. attorney in Connecticut, was appointed in 2019 by Trump’s attorney general, William Barr, shortly after special counsel Robert Mueller concluded his investigation into whether the 2016 Trump campaign had colluded with Russia to sway the election results in his favor. please.
Mueller’s investigation led to approximately three dozen criminal charges, including the conviction of a half-dozen Trump associates, and concluded that Russia interfered with the Trump campaign and that the campaign received such assistance.
But Mueller’s team did not find that they actually conspired to sway the election, creating an opening for critics of the probe – including Barr himself – to complain that it has been opened without a proper basis.
The original Russia investigation was opened in July 2016 after the FBI learned from an Australian diplomat that a Trump campaign associate named George Papadopoulos had claimed to know “dirt” done by Russia on Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in the form of hacked emails.
But the revelations in the following months showed shortcomings in the investigation, including the errors and omissions of the Justice Department’s application to hear former Trump campaign aide Carter Page, as well as the FBI’s reliance on unconfirmed or discredited information dossiers compiled. by former British spy, Christopher Steele.
US officials are investigating a series of threatening emails, sent to voters in several countries, and have identified Iran and Russia as foreign actors trying to influence public opinion.
Durham’s team investigated the error, finding that investigators did not support a “single substantive allegation” in the Steele dossier and ignored or rationalized what they claimed was exculpatory information Trump’s associates gave to confidential FBI informants.
Durham’s mandate was to scrutinize the administration’s decisions, and identify possible wrongdoing, at the start of the Trump-Russia investigation. The appointment was welcomed by Trump, who in a 2019 interview with Fox News said Durham was “probably the smartest and the best.”
Trump and his supporters hope to uncover a “deep state” conspiracy in the upper echelons of the FBI and other agencies to undermine the presidency and Trump’s candidacy. Durham and his team cast a wide net, interviewing top officials at the FBI, the Justice Department and the CIA.
Weeks before stepping down in December 2020 as attorney general, Barr appointed Durham as special counsel to the Justice Department to ensure he would continue his work in a Democratic administration. The slow pace of the probe irked Trump, who blasted Barr before he left office over a report he wouldn’t release for years.
At the end of the Trump administration, only one criminal case has been brought, while the sudden departure of Durham’s top representative in the last month of Trump’s tenure raised the question of whether the team is in sync.
Despite hopes that Durham could charge senior government officials, his team produced only three claims.
A former FBI lawyer claims he wrongly turned over emails the FBI relied on when applying for an eavesdrop on a former Trump campaign aide.
Two other defendants — a lawyer for the Clinton campaign and a Russian-American think tank analyst — were both acquitted on charges of lying to the FBI.
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