Special Counsel John Durham found that the FBI did not have enough ‘factual evidence’ to investigate allegations of Trump-Russia collusion, in scathing report obtained by DailyMail.com Monday.
Durham’s report is a summary of findings related to whether the then-Trump campaign in 2016 colluded with Russia to meddle with the election outcome.
The special counsel transmitted the report on his four-years-long investigation costing over $6 million in taxpayer dollars, to top members of Congress including Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin and Ranking Member Lindsey Graham, House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan and Ranking Member Jerry Nadler.
The report, which is over 300 pages, states that the Department of Justice and the FBI ‘failed to uphold their mission of strict fidelity to the law.’
Durham writes: ‘Based on the evidence gathered in the multiple exhaustive and costly federal investigations of these matters, including the instant investigation, neither U.S. law enforcement nor the Intelligence Community appears to have possessed any actual evidence of collusion in their holdings at the commencement of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation.’
Special Counsel John Durham released his highly-anticipated report Monday
Crossfire Hurricane was the internal code name for an investigation by the FBI that began in 2016 to look into possible links between the then-Trump campaign and Russia. However, it has since been exposed that the entire basis for the investigation was founded on false information.
As a result, Special Counsel John Durham was appointed in 2019 by then-Attorney General Bill Barr to look into misconduct related to the Crossfire Hurricane probe.
‘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 inference plans aimed at the Clinton campaign,’ the report continues.
‘FBI records prepared by Strzok in February and March 2017 show at the time of opening Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI had no information in its holding indicating that any time during the campaign anyone in the Trump campaign had been in contact with any Russian intelligence officials.’
The document goes on to detail many missteps by the FBI in its initial opening of the probe, which was predicated on an unvetted dossier created by British spy Christopher Steele.
‘Our investigation determined that the Crossfire Hurricane investigators did not and could not corroborate any of the substantive allegations contained in the Steele reporting.’
The report mentions Igor Danchenko – Steele’s primary sub-source – saying that Danchenko was also ‘unable to provide any corroborating evidence to support the Steele allegations.’
Durham blasts the FBI for failing to interview Charles Dolan – a Democratic public relations operative who was connected to Dmitry Peskov, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s press secretary and who was a ‘definite source’ for at least one of the allegations contained in the Steele report.
The report includes blistering language saying that Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) applications opened by the FBI were not created out of a mission of ‘strict fidelity to the law.’
FBI personnel working on the FISA application ‘displayed, at best, a cavalier attitude towards accuracy and completeness’ and ‘disregarded important requirements’ on multiple occasions, says Durham.
He says it is evidence that the FBI officials ‘did not genuinely believe there was probable cause to believe that the target was knowingly engaged in clandestine intelligence activities on behalf of a foreign power.’
Although the report does not recommend any ‘wholesale changes’ in guidelines or policies of the Department of Justice, it says there is a ‘continuing need’ for the agencies to recognize the lack of ‘analytical rigor’ and apparent ‘confirmation bias.’
Special Counsel John Durham was appointed in 2019 by then-Attorney General Bill Barr to look into misconduct related to the Crossfire Hurricane probe
Special Counsel Durham transmitted the report on his four-years-long investigation costing over $6 million in taxpayer dollars to Congress Monday
House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan confirmed to DailyMail.com that he will be requesting Durham appear before his committee next week. He has already reached out to DOJ regarding his demand.
Attorney General Merrick Garland reportedly received the report last Friday before it was sent to Congress Monday.
Trump has repeatedly railed about the Russia probe, blasting it as a ‘witch hunt’ and repeatedly mocking it as ‘Russia, Russia, Russia’ before and since leaving office.
Durham has successfully obtained one conviction out of his years-long investigation – former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith.
Clinesmith pleaded guilty to illegally altering an email that was then used as the basis to obtain a ‘surveillance warrant’ on Carter Page, who was serving as a Trump campaign staffer in 2016.
This is a breaking news report and will be updated.
