A long-awaited report has sharply criticized the FBI’s handling of the investigation into alleged ties between Russia and the 2016 Trump campaign.
In the 306-page report, special counsel John Durham said the agency’s inquiry lacked “analytical rigor.”
He concluded that the FBI did not have “substantial evidence” of collusion between the Donald Trump campaign and Russia before it began its investigation.
The FBI said it had addressed the issues highlighted in the report.
In the report, Mr Durham – who was appointed in 2019 by then-Attorney General William Barr – accused the FBI of acting on “raw, unanalyzed and unverified intelligence”.
Among the investigative errors he cites are repeated examples of “confirmation bias,” in which he ignores information that undermines the initial basis of an investigation.
The report noted significant differences in the way the FBI handled the Trump investigation compared to other potentially sensitive inquiries, such as that of his 2016 election rival Hillary Clinton.
Mr. Durham noted that Mrs. Clinton and others had received “defense briefings” from the FBI aimed at “persons who may be targets of nefarious activities by foreign powers.” Mr. Trump did not.
“The Department [of Justice] and the FBI failed to uphold their core mission of strict fidelity to the law,” the report concluded.
In a statement, the FBI said it had “already implemented dozens of corrective actions”.
“Had these reforms been in place in 2016, the errors identified in the report could have been prevented,” the statement added.
The FBI’s investigation into alleged ties between the Trump campaign and Russia, led by special counsel Robert Mueller, led to dozens of criminal charges against Trump campaign staff and associates, including computer hacking and financial crimes.
However, it was not found that the Trump campaign and Russia conspired to influence the election.
Writing on his social media platform, Truth Social, Mr Trump said the Durham report showed “the American people were deceived”. He cited the report’s conclusion that there was insufficient evidence to warrant a full investigation by the FBI. Mr Trump has long claimed that members of the “deep state” are unfairly targeting him.
Last year, Mr Trump said he believed the Durham report would provide evidence of “really bad, evil, illegal and unconstitutional” activities and “reveal corruption at a level never seen before in our country. Seen”.
The Durham report falls short of the blockbuster revelations and prosecutions that some Trump allies had hoped for from the inquiry.
A four-year investigation resulted in three lawsuits. They include an FBI attorney who pleaded guilty to tampering with evidence from a former Trump campaign official while applying for a secret permit.
Two others were acquitted of lying to the FBI.
The former president cited some court filings by the Durham team as part of a lawsuit filed against Mrs. Clinton and several other Democrats and government officials, alleging they covered her campaign’s ties to Russia. had conspired to damage his 2016 presidential bid by spreading rumors about
A judge in January dismissed the lawsuit as frivolous and ordered Mr. Trump to pay nearly $1 million in fines.
Mr. Durham and his investigation are unlikely to disappear from the national headlines anytime soon.
Shortly after news of the report’s public release, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan announced that he would call the former US attorney to testify before Congress about his work.
