A long-awaited report has criticized the FBI’s handling of its investigation into a link between Russia and Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
In a 300-page report, Special Counsel John Durham said the FBI investigation lacked “analytical rigor”.
Trump had vowed that the Durham report would expose the “crime of the century”.
The FBI said it researched the cases covered in the report.
Durham, who was appointed by then Attorney General William Barr in 2019, in the report, accused the FBI of acting on unanalysed and unconfirmed intelligence when it began the investigation.
The report noted significant differences in the way the FBI handled the Trump investigation compared to other potentially sensitive investigations, such as the one involving his rival Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Durham noted that Clinton and others received a “defense briefing” aimed at “those who may be the targets of nefarious activities by foreign powers.” While Trump did not receive it.
The report concluded that “the Department of Justice and the FBI have failed to uphold their mission of strict fidelity to the law.”
Among the various investigative errors made by the FBI were repeated instances of “confirmation bias” that ignored information that undermined the initial premise of the investigation, codenamed “Hurricane Crossfire”.
The FBI said in a statement that it “has already implemented dozens of corrective actions.”
“Had those reforms been applied in 2016, the errors identified in the report could have been avoided,” the statement added.
The investigation into alleged ties between the Trump campaign and Russia, conducted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, has led to dozens of criminal charges against former Trump campaign employees and concluded that Russia attempted to interfere in the 2016 election.
However, he did not find that the Trump campaign and Russia conspired to influence the election.
Trump said on his “TruthSocial” social media platform on Monday that the report showed that “the American public has been deceived.” He cited the report’s finding that there was insufficient evidence to warrant a full investigation by the FBI.
Trump has long claimed that members of the country’s “deep state” unfairly target him.
Trump said last year he believed the Durham report would provide evidence of “bad, evil, illegal and unconstitutional” activities and “expose corruption on an unprecedented level in our country.”
Durham’s four-year investigation resulted in three prosecutions, including against an FBI attorney who pleaded guilty to altering evidence while applying for permission to wiretap a former Trump campaign official.
Two other people were acquitted of lying to the FBI.
Trump was sued by the Durham team as part of a lawsuit he filed against former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and several other Democrats and government officials, alleging that they conspired to undermine his 2016 presidential candidacy by spreading rumors about his campaign’s ties to Russia.
A judge dismissed the lawsuit in January as meritless and ordered Trump to pay nearly $1 million in fines.
It is unlikely that Durham’s name and his investigation will disappear from the headlines of American newspapers in the near future.
Shortly after news was released that the report would be made public, House Oversight Committee Chairman Jim Jordan announced that he would subpoena the former US attorney to testify before Congress regarding his work.
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