Special counsel John Durham closed his four-year investigation of the FBI’s probe of alleged links between Russia and Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign with the release Monday of a scathing report on the bureau’s conduct, but he did not recommend new criminal charges.
The 320-page report, which Mr. Durham issued nearly four years to the day of his appointment by then-Attorney General William P. Barr, slammed the bureau and its top officials for disregarding their own rules in attempts to nail Mr. Trump. He concluded that the bureau ignored its guidelines, failed to consider information that countered allegations that the Trump campaign was colluding with Russia and failed to show objectivity.
Mr. Durham said FBI agents were so eager to pursue President Trump that they heralded “seriously flawed information” and abandoned their “own principles regarding objectivity and integrity.” Mr. Durham wrote that the FBI’s behavior was “seriously deficient” and caused “severe reputational harm.”
“Based on the review of Crossfire Hurricane and related intelligence activities, we conclude that the [Justice] Department and the FBI failed to uphold their mission of strict fidelity to the law in connection with certain events and activities described in this report,” Mr. Durham wrote of Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI’s code name for its Trump investigation.
“Again, the FBI’s failure to critically analyze the information that ran counter to the narrative of a Trump/Russia collusive relationship exhibited throughout Crossfire Hurricane is extremely troublesome,” the report said.
Mr. Durham said he was particularly troubled by the FBI’s defensive briefing to the team of 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton after agents uncovered potential evidence by a foreign actor to influence her campaign but opened an investigation of the Trump campaign without giving a similar briefing.
He tore into the FBI for relying on unverified and salacious reports by former British spy Christopher Steele to justify an investigation into Trump campaign aide Carter Page. The so-called Steele dossier, full of uncorroborated statements tying Mr. Trump to Russia, was later discredited.
Mr. Durham said neither his team nor the FBI could corroborate any information in the Steele dossier.
Agents even offered a top source for the dossier $1 million to verify a “single claim” in the report, but the source was unable to do so. Mr. Durham said that was an example of “apparent confirmation bias” and an “over-willingness” to rely on information tied to Mr. Trump’s political opponents.
Despite the sharp rebuke, Mr. Durham did not recommend any wholesale changes to the FBI’s guidelines or policies. The report did urge the bureau to appoint an agent or lawyer to oversee politically sensitive investigations.
The special counsel encouraged FBI officials to adhere to the bureau’s mission of catching criminals with thoroughness and objectivity.
“The answer is not the creation of the new rules but a renewed fidelity to the old,” Mr. Durham wrote. “The promulgation of additional rules and regulations to be learned in yet more training exercises would likely prove to be a fruitless exercise.”
Senior FBI officials who oversaw the Crossfire Hurricane investigation left the agency years ago, so they will not face any disciplinary action. At least four figures from Crossfire Hurricane have faced criminal charges or wound up under investigation.
Bureau officials released a letter to Mr. Durham outlining some of the changes the FBI has made to improve the accuracy of its applications to surveil suspected spies. Those applications for Foreign Intelligence Surveillance warrants were used to surveil some members of Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign.
“Had those reforms been in place in 2016, the missteps identified in the report could have been prevented. This report reinforces the importance of ensuring the FBI continues to do its work with the rigor, objectivity and professionalism the American people deserve and rightly expect,” the FBI said in a statement.
The report is the culmination of Mr. Durham’s long-running investigation that energized and frustrated Mr. Trump and his allies. Mr. Trump repeatedly predicted that Mr. Durham would uncover “the crime of the century” and that early allegations of wrongdoing uncovered during the probe would be “just the beginning.”
As the investigation wore on with little new public information, Mr. Trump ridiculed the lack of activity.
“Where’s Durham? Is he a living, breathing person?” Mr. Trump said in March 2021, mocking the investigation that he had demanded.
Mr. Trump, the 2024 Republican presidential front-runner, hailed the report as proof that the FBI’s investigation into his campaign was politically motivated.
“WOW! After extensive research, Special Counsel John Durham concludes the FBI never should have launched the Trump-Russia Probe! In other words, the American Public was scammed, just as it is being scammed right now by those who don’t want to see GREATNESS for AMERICA!” he posted on his Truth Social media platform.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican and ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, called the Durham report a “damning indictment of the FBI” under Director James B. Comey.
“Not only could the FBI not verify the Steele Dossier — the essential foundation for surveillance warrants — they ignored exculpatory evidence and illegally altered evidence to continue the investigation. The facts confirm that the investigation was launched and continued as part of a political agenda,” he said in a statement.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, Ohio Republican, immediately dispatched a letter to Mr. Durham asking to testify next week before the panel.
In the end, Mr. Durham’s results were underwhelming.
A little-known FBI lawyer pleaded guilty to tampering with evidence to justify the surveillance of Mr. Page, but Washington-area jurors acquitted the only two men Mr. Durham took to trial.
Special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into whether Mr. Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia resulted in nearly three dozen criminal charges, including six Trump associates. He also concluded that Russia had interfered in the 2016 election to aid Mr. Trump, but he did not find evidence of a conspiracy with the Trump campaign to sway the election.
After Mr. Durham’s second acquittal in the fall, Democrats and some Justice Department officials demanded that Attorney General Merrick Garland shut down the investigation. The probe, which cost taxpayers more than $6.5 million as of December, has produced paltry results.
Mr. Durham brought criminal charges against Igor Danchenko, a private researcher who was a primary source for the Steele report. He was charged with lying to the FBI about how he compiled his information.
Mr. Durham personally argued his case in an Alexandria, Virginia, courtroom. The jury found Mr. Danchenko not guilty.
A Washington jury last year acquitted Hillary Clinton campaign attorney Michael Sussmann of lying to the FBI about purported evidence that linked the Trump Organization to a Russian bank. The FBI debunked the allegation, but only after the 2016 election.
Former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith admitted in 2020 that he doctored evidence to justify the surveillance of Mr. Page, the Trump campaign adviser. He was sentenced to one year of probation.
Although Mr. Durham’s tenure as special counsel is ending, two other special counsels are continuing work. Jack Smith is investigating whether Mr. Trump illegally mishandled sensitive government documents and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, and Robert Hur is probing whether President Biden also wrongfully handled classified documents.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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