Special Counsel John Durham is set to provide testimony before the House Judiciary Committee concerning the absolutely scorching report the Justice Department recently released on the origin of the Russian collusion investigation during the 2016 presidential election. Durham is scheduled to make his appearance on June 21, Fox News reported.
The report also revealed that Durham will be making an appearance in a closed-door briefing with the House Intelligence Committee the day before his testimony. Durham wrote in his report that the DOJ and the Federal Bureau of Investigation “failed to uphold their mission of strict fidelity to the law” when they launched the probe into alleged collusion between Trump and Russia.
“The FBI’s original investigation, known as ‘Crossfire Hurricane,’ looked into whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election. Durham’s 300-page report to the Justice Department said his 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,'” Fox said.
“This information in part triggered and sustained Crossfire Hurricane and contributed to the subsequent need for Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation,” the report continued. “In particular, there was significant reliance on investigative leads provided or funded (directly or indirectly) by Trump’s political opponents.”
“The Department did not adequately examine or question these materials and the motivations of those providing them, even when at about the same time the Director of the FBI and others learned of significant and potentially contrary intelligence,” the report added.
Durham is making a reference to former FBI leadership in his report into the probe’s origin, most notably former FBI Director James Comey and former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.
The FBI issued a reply to Durham’s report, going on to say, “The conduct in 2016 and 2017 that Special Counsel Durham examined was the reason that current FBI leadership already implemented dozens of corrective actions, which have now been in place for some time. 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.”
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