Special Counsel John Durham's 300-page report, which was released on Monday, found that the Department of Justice and FBI 'failed to uphold their mission of strict fidelity to the law' in regards to the investigation of possible collusion with Trump and Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election.
Durham said the FBI began probing Trump's alleged ties to Russia on the flimsiest of pretexts, with no links between the ex-president and Kremlin ever uncovered.
Monday's report comes after Durham's years-long investigation into the origins of the FBI's original investigation, known as 'Crossfire Hurricane.'
Investigators were looking into whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election.
But the special counsel said senior FBI personnel showed 'a serious lack of analytical rigor' and a 'significant reliance on investigative leads provided or funded (directly or indirectly) by Trump's political opponents.'
Durham’s 300-page report found a damning conclusion: “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.”
“Our investigation also revealed that senior FBI personnel displayed a serious lack of analytical rigor towards the information that they received, especially information received from politically affiliated persons and entities,” Durham’s report said, in apparent reference to the Hillary Clinton campaign-funded Fusion GPS “pee dossier” alleging collusion that the FBI relied on to investigate Trump.
Durham concluded his report with a scathing indictment of Deep State bias in the probe, which fueled a mainstream media frenzy of Trump’s supposed conspiracy with the Kremlin to win the White House.
“It is the Office’s assessment that the FBI discounted or willfully ignored material information that did not support the narrative of a collusive relationship between Trump and Russia,” Durham wrote.
“Similarly, the FBI Inspection Division Report says that the investigators ‘repeatedly ignore[d] or explain[ed] away evidence contrary to the theory the Trump campaign… had conspired with Russia… It appeared that … there was a pattern of assuming nefarious intent,’” he added.
“An objective and honest assessment of these strands of information should have caused the FBI to question not only the predication for [the investigation], but also to reflect on whether the FBI was being manipulated for political or other purposes. Unfortunately, it did not.”
In a response statement, the FBI said the current leadership of the bureau has implemented dozens of corrective actions.
'Had those reforms been in place in 2016, the missteps identified in the report could have been prevented,' the FBI said in a statement.
In a televised interview on Tuesday night, Trump also responded to the Durham report, saying the findings vindicate his claims of baseless persecution.
Trump has repeated trashed claims of Russian collusion as a 'hoax' and 'a witch hunt'
'It's a great vindication and it feels good, and the report has been widely praised,' Trump told Newsmax in a phone interview.
'All of these people are -- I guess you could call it treason. You could call it a lot of different things. But this should never be allowed to happen in our country again,' added Trump.
Trump also welcomed the Durham report in a post on his Truth Social platform.
'WOW! After extensive research, Special Counsel John Durham concludes the FBI never should have launched the Trump-Russia Probe!' Trump said.
What happens now is anyone's guess, but it is unlikely the current administration will delve into the issue further.
In this case it turns out the only people not guilty of russia collusion were the Russians and Donald Trump.
