An independent US prosecutor, Special Counsel John Durham, has released a highly critical report on the FBI’s investigation into alleged collusion between Russia and Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
The FBI investigation into alleged collusion between Russia and Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign was based on flimsy evidence and seriously flawed, an independent US prosecutor said in a report published Monday.
Special Counsel John Durham was appointed in 2019 by then-president Trump’s attorney general, Bill Barr, to address allegations — made most prominently by Trump himself—that the Russia investigation was a political “witch hunt.”
Durham’s more than 300-page report follows a four-year investigation that continued under Barr’s successor, Attorney General Merrick Garland, an appointee of Democratic President Joe Biden.
The long-awaited report was highly critical of the origins of “Crossfire Hurricane,” the FBI’s probe into allegations of collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign.
Durham, a former federal prosecutor, also said the FBI and Justice Department had displayed a double standard in how they investigated Trump and his 2016 rival for the White House, Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Trump, seeking the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, welcomed the Durham report in a post on his Truth Social platform.
In a statement, the FBI said the current bureau leadership had implemented dozens of corrective actions.
Both homed in on Russian hacking and social media manipulation in favor of Trump in 2016 and multiple contacts between the Trump campaign and Russians.
The Mueller probe expanded that to cover alleged acts of obstruction by Trump.
In the end, Mueller gained convictions of six members of the Trump campaign and issued indictments of 25 Russians.
But Mueller found no evidence of criminal cooperation with Russia by the Trump campaign, and Barr rejected his proof of alleged obstruction by Trump.
Durham’s investigation led to the indictments of a Russian national and a prominent Washington lawyer for making false statements to the FBI, but both were acquitted.
The Russian, Igor Danchenko, was accused of supplying information for a report that contained unverified salacious details about Trump and Russia known as the “Steele dossier,” compiled by a former British intelligence agent, Christopher Steele.
Miroslava Salazar with AFP.
