Special Counsel John Durham, who was tapped by former Attorney General Bill Barr in May 2019 to get to the bottom of why the FBI launched a probe into the Trump 2016 campaign and Trump administration for "Russian collusion," has finally issued a 306-page report on the matter.
"The objective facts show that the FBI’s handling of important aspects of the Crossfire Hurricane matter were seriously deficient,” Durham wrote. "Based on the review of Crossfire Hurricane and related intelligence activities, we conclude that the (Justice) Department and FBI failed to uphold their important mission of strict fidelity to the law in connection with certain events and activities described in this report."
During his lengthy investigation, Durham found the FBI should have never opened the investigations and that they were led by politically motivated actors like former FBI agent Peter Strzok.
"Neither U.S. nor the Intelligence Community appears to have possessed any actual evidence of collusion in their holdings at the commencement of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation," the report states. "FBI records prepared by [Peter] Strzok in February and March 2017 show that at the time of the opening of Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI had no information in its holdings indicating that at any time during the campaign anyone in the Trump had been in contact with any Russian intelligence officials.”
NOW - Durham report finds the FBI failed in its responsibility to the public and never should have launched the Trump-Russia probe.pic.twitter.com/uIIQJYVrOS
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) May 15, 2023
Durham found that the Steele dossier, which was developed by the Clinton campaign with foreign spy Christopher Steel and then used by the FBI to obtain FISA warrants and by the media to deem former President Donald Trump guilty of collusion, was extremely flawed and untruthful.
"Our investigation determined that the Crossfire Hurricane investigators did not and could not corroborate any of the substantive allegations contained in the Steele reporting," Durham writes.
Durham: The FBI knew Steele Dossier source Igor Danchenko's claims about Sergei Millian were lies, which is why they never tried to even corroborate them. And yet, the FBI still put the false allegations in multiple illegal FISA warrant applications against Carter Page. pic.twitter.com/BahgiZZBEJ
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) May 15, 2023
Inside the Obama administration, a number of officials were involved and briefed on the Clinton campaign's efforts to falsely tie Trump to Russia.
"In late July 2016, U.S. intelligence agencies obtained insight into Russian intelligence analysis alleging that U.S Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton had approved a campaign plan to stir up a scandal against U.S. Presidential candidate Donald Trump by tying him to Putin and the Russians' hacking of the Democratic National Committee," the report states. "According to his handwritten notes, CIA Director Brennan subsequently briefed President Obama and other senior national security officials on the intelligence, including the 'alleged approval by Hillary Clinton on July 26, 2016 of a proposal from one of her foreign policy advisors to vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by Russian security services."
Brennan knew the conspiracy theory of Russian collusion was politically motivated and yet, briefed President Obama and continued to make accusations of collusion for years on MSNBC.
🚨BREAKING: According to the Durham Report, the plan by Hillary Clinton to create a false story linking Donald Trump to Russia was briefed in August of 2016 by CIA Director John Brennan to President Obama, VP Biden, AG Loretta Lynch, and FBI Director Comey. pic.twitter.com/r2NvwJyKW8
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) May 15, 2023
According to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, Durham could appear before Congress as early as next week to discuss the findings.
We’ve reached out to the Justice Department to have Special Counsel John Durham testify next week.
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) May 15, 2023
This story has been updated with additional information.