Special Counsel John Durham let loose with the unvarnished truth on the FBI’s Trump-Russia probe.
In a report released Monday by the Justice Department, Durham suggests the FBI exhibited a double standard, pursuing allegations of Russia’s links to Trump’s 2016 campaign with unmatched intensity, while barely scratching the surface of serious claims about foreign entities striving to exert influence over Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
Durham, in his investigative role for four years, delivered a 306-page report that was made public on Monday.
The report critiques the bureau for a “lack of analytical rigor,” in probing whether the 2016 Trump campaign was coordinating with Moscow.
His report discusses efforts by foreign agents to sway Clinton through campaign donations. The report concludes that FBI had evidence the Steele Dossier could have been sourced to Russian disinformation. The agency didn’t disclose this fact.
The report says that while Clinton was briefed on such attempts by Russians to infiltrate her campaign, Trump and his aides were not briefed about the FBI’s suspicions of influence attempts.
“The objective facts show that the FBI’s handling of important aspects of the Crossfire Hurricane matter were seriously deficient,” the report says, of the code name “Crossfire Hurricane,” the agency’s operation.
Durham doesn’t plainly accuse the FBI. of making decisions based on political bias. Instead, he suggests the presence of a “confirmation bias,” with some FBI agents holding strong political views that made them lean towards the “Russia plot” theory of the Trump campaign.
