The testimony and report of Special Counsel <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/john-durham" target="_blank" rel="noopener">John Durham</a> show clearly that there was “political coordination” at the FBI in the investigation into former President Donald Trump over alleged collusion, according to Daily Wire Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro.
Shapiro made the comments on <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1752-the-schiff-hits-the-fan-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">his Thursday show</a> while discussing Durham&#8217;s testimony on Wednesday before Congress. Durham conducted a nearly four-year investigation that painted a damning picture of an FBI that disregarded its mission and central principles in order to pursue a partisan investigation into Trump.
“That report, if you&#8217;ll recall, was just an absolute disaster for Democrats. I called it maybe the worst political scandal in American history. Nobody actually took it seriously in the press, because to do so would have been devastating for the Obama administration. In particular, as I wrote at the time, Crossfire Hurricane was initiated based on sheer conjecture,” Shapiro said. 
Shapiro explained that the investigation was based on shoddy evidence that was in part begun by agents who had voiced political opposition to Trump. 
“The FBI basically greenlit the investigation within days of receiving that flimsy information. Peter Strzok, who&#8217;s an ardent Trump hater, he helped initiate that investigation. The investigation from notes was launched well before any dialogue with Russia, with Australia, or the intelligence community prior to any critical analysis of the information itself,” Shapiro said.
Durham <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/john-durham-set-to-testify-in-congress-over-damning-report-on-fbi" target="_blank" rel="noopener">found in his report</a> that the FBI opened the Crossfire Hurricane investigation into Trump’s campaign “based on raw, unanalyzed, and uncorroborated intelligence” and took allegations about Trump far more seriously than allegations about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
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During his testimony, Durham said that investigators at the FBI suffered from confirmation bias, and ignored evidence that didn&#8217;t fit the narrative that Trump was colluding with Russia.
&#8220;Well, all of this ticked off the Democrats to no end, because what he is suggesting here is systemic failure. And it&#8217;s not just a question of a few bad apples,” Shapiro said. 
Durham said <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/john-durham-says-fbi-agents-apologized-to-him-for-trump-probe" target="_blank" rel="noopener">during his Wednesday testimony</a> that some current and former agents at the FBI had apologized to him for the investigation. 
“Let me give you some real-life views,” Durham said. “I have had any number of FBI agents who I’ve worked with over the years — some of them are retired, some of them are still in place — who have come to me and apologized for the manner in which that investigation was undertaken.”

House Select Intelligence Committee Receives Testimony From Former Special Counsel John Durham In Closed Hearing

Durham Testimony Suggests ‘Political Coordination’ Against Trump At FBI, Ben Shapiro Says

Crossfire Hurricane

Donald Trump

Hillary Clinton

John Durham

Russiagate

Special Counsel John Durham shed another light on the United States&#8217; two-tiered justice system when he concluded the FBI had no evidence to launch the now-infamous &#8220;Crossfire Hurricane&#8221; investigation into then-presidential candidate Donald Trump&#8217;s 2016 campaign and its alleged ties to Russia.
Durham, who former Attorney General Bill Barr tasked to examine the propriety of the bureau&#8217;s investigation into the former president, released a <a href="https://www.justice.gov/storage/durhamreport.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">320-page report</a> on Monday after nearly four years of investigation. The report states investigators based the probe on false allegations, found &#8220;sobering&#8221; differences in its approach compared to other politically sensitive cases, and concluded that the Department of Justice and the FBI failed to uphold their important mission of strict fidelity to the law.
&#8220;An objective and honest assessment of these strands of information should have caused the FBI to question not only the predication for Crossfire Hurricane, but also to reflect on whether the FBI was being manipulated for political or other purposes,&#8221; the report reads. &#8220;Unfortunately, it did not.&#8221;
The extensive report has prompted demands for accountability within the FBI.
Real Clear Investigations senior writer and Federalist editor Mark Hemingway noted critical takeaways from the report that showcased how the FBI violated reams of established policy and procedures to pursue this investigation.
&#8220;They knew very quickly that it was baseless, and yet they seem to continue to pursue this investigation incredibly aggressively in a way that was totally unprecedented and flew in the face of all kinds of contrary evidence that they had in their possession about it,&#8221; Hemingway told The Daily Wire in a special edition of &#8220;Morning Wire.&#8221;
<h4>LISTEN: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/morning-wire/catastrophic-failure-of-fbi-5-21-23">Catch the full interview on our Sunday Edition of Morning Wire</a>.</h4>
Durham&#8217;s investigation has only led to the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/kevin-clinesmith-altered-an-email-in-the-trump-russia-probe-to-keep-it-going-he-just-received-probation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">conviction</a> of former FBI attorney Kevin Clinesmith, who was sentenced to 12 months probation and 400 hours of community service for altering an email used in one of the FISA applications alleging that former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page had been a source for the Central Intelligence Agency.
The report contrasts former special counsel Robert Mueller&#8217;s investigation, which an <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/breakdown-indictments-cases-muellers-probe/story?id=61219489" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ABC</a> analysis  shows indictments against 34 individuals and three Russian businesses. Eight have pleaded guilty to or been convicted of felonies, including five Trump associates and campaign officials.
Durham may have found the bureau&#8217;s failure sobering, but Hemingway believes the report&#8217;s troubling revelations and sweeping implications represent a &#8220;catastrophic&#8221; politically-motivated animus and bias across the justice system from officials who neglected their respect for civil rights and democracy.
Neither U.S. law enforcement nor the Intelligence Community appeared to have any actual evidence of collusion between Trump and Russia, Durham reported, and Crossfire investigators failed to corroborate any of the substantive allegations primarily based on since-debunked notorious dossier provided by former British MI6 spy Christopher Steele.
According to the report, FBI officials learned Steele had relied primarily on sub-sourced tales from U.S.-based Russian national Igor Danchenko, who flunked out of the Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institute think-tank. Investigation in the Durham report discovered that Danchenko had told another individual that he claimed responsibility for 80% of the &#8216;intel&#8217; and 50% of the analysis contained in the Steele Dossier.
In Hemingway&#8217;s estimation, an example of the so-called intel from Danchenko is the &#8220;golden showers&#8221; tale involving alleged salacious sexual activity taking place at Moscow&#8217;s Ritz Carlton between Russian prostitutes and the former president.
Durham named Democratic PR executive Charles Dolan, a former adviser to Hillary Clinton&#8217;s failed 2008 presidential campaign, as the source who leaked the fabricated story after hearing it from a staff member at the luxury hotel in Russia.
Hemingway further noted that after the FBI knew that Danchenko provided false information, the bureau paid him an additional $300,000 and kept him on the payroll as a confidential human source so they could avoid admitting the agency&#8217;s failure in judgment.
&#8220;It&#8217;s just an absolute travesty and miscarriage of justice in that regard,&#8221; Hemingway said.
Danchenko had been the subject of an FBI counterintelligence investigation from 2009 to 2011, according to the report. The bureau launched an investigation into Danchenko while he was employed by the Brookings Institution in 2008 after agents interviewed several former colleagues who raised concerns about potential involvement between him and Russian intelligence.
&#8220;During this exchange, Danchenko informed the employee that he had access to people who were willing to pay for classified information.&#8221; according to the report.
Hemingway said the bureau never made any conclusive judgments about the investigation, raising further concerns about why the FBI would source information from a potential Russian agent injecting misinformation into a presidential election.
&#8220;And yet they kept this fact under wrap and used his information to get warrants to spy on the president,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I mean — it&#8217;s just absolute madness that they would just pick and choose information from an unreliable source that they believed could have been a Russian agent.&#8221;
Durham repeatedly makes clear the investigation found no substantive evidence from the beginning corroborating the Russia collusion narrative — and that the Clinton campaign drummed it up. Yet in August of 2016, some of the highest-ranking U.S. officials — CIA Director John Brennan, President Obama, Vice President Biden, AG Loretta Lynch, and FBI Director James Comey — were all involved in briefings on this manufactured narrative.
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Whether the top U.S. officials were committed to partisan objectives, refused to believe an atypical candidate like Trump was anything but malicious, or because Trump represented a populous rejection of an agenda federal officials had been working on, Hemingway said the truth likely comes from a mixture of more conscious efforts.
&#8220;Basically, undermine and possibly, even overthrow a democratically elected president and install someone else simply because they viewed him as a threat to their sort of, you know, established cultural and political order,&#8221; Hemingway said. &#8220;Whatever we want to say about Donald Trump, his election was a loud signal from the American populace that they were very tired of the established center-left order when it came to issues like immigration and foreign policy.&#8221;
&#8220;And they just couldn&#8217;t handle that,&#8221; he added.
Durham&#8217;s report has also prompted demands for accountability over the attempts to downplay the findings by Biden Administration officials and the legacy media outlets like the New York Times and Washington Post, which both received a Pulitzer Prize for reporting on false claims of collusion despite a glaring lack of evidence.
&#8220;I don&#8217;t know how anyone could conclude that these people should ever be trusted again on this topic,&#8221; Hemingway said. &#8220;Let alone almost anything else.&#8221;
The FBI responded to the report, which federal authorities characterized as &#8220;missteps&#8221; that led up to Operation Crossfire Hurricane and the following months, while claiming the bureau has implemented some new rules and dozens of policies they believe have fully addressed all the issues Durham highlighted in the report.
&#8220;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,&#8221; FBI officials said in a news release. &#8220;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.&#8221;
But despite the damning evidence, lack of integrity, and regard for established procedures noted by Durham in the report, Hemingway said he doubts any significant indictments or accountability for subverting democracy would come from the investigation.
&#8220;I know that&#8217;s depressing, but knowing the truth always matters,&#8221; he tweeted. &#8220;Don&#8217;t forget that.&#8221;
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The Durham Report is damning as hell, and there&#39;s going to be no big indictments or accountability for what they did to subvert democracy.
I know that&#39;s depressing, but knowing the truth always matters. Don&#39;t forget that.
&mdash; Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) <a href="https://twitter.com/Heminator/status/1658215798844825635?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 15, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
He told The Daily Wire until the FBI employs people of integrity willing to commit to the bureau&#8217;s mission — which <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fbi-whistleblowers-to-testify-how-bureau-allegedly-abused-power-in-j6-capitol-riot-investigations" target="_blank" rel="noopener">former agents-turned-whistleblower</a> allege has shifted from upholding the U.S. Constitution to protecting the agency&#8217;s brand — &#8220;none of this really matters.&#8221;

Clinton Attorney Michael Sussman Acquitted Of Charge Of Lying To The F.B.I.

Durham Report Sheds Light On ‘Catastrophic’ Two-Tiered Justice System

Durham Report Sheds Light On 'Catastrophic' Two-Tiered Justice System

Politics

Readers Pass

U.S.

This week, Special Counsel John Durham released a 316-page report detailing the origins of Operation Crossfire Hurricane – the FBI’s investigation into supposed connections between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. The report is an astounding expose of corruption and collusion – not between Trump and Russia, but between the Hillary Clinton campaign, friendlies at the FBI, and top officials at the Obama administration. As it turns out, Crossfire Hurricane was initiated based on sheer conjecture. That conjecture was trafficked by Hillary’s 2016 campaign. And that conjecture served as the basis for a four-year-long witch hunt into a bevy of allegations that ultimately came to nothing.
The story began, Durham reports, in late July 2016, when Australia provided information to the US embassy in London surrounding conversations between Australian diplomats and low-level Trump foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos, in which Papadopoulos had allegedly suggested that the “Trump team had received some kind of suggestion from Russia that it could assist” in the process of releasing information about Hillary Clinton. This information alone was utilized as the predicate for launching the full-blown Trump-Russia investigation, within three days after receipt of the flimsy information. Top FBI officials greenlit the investigation, including Peter Strzok, deputy assistant director of counterintelligence and devoted Trump-hater. The investigation, Durham notes, was launched “before any dialogue with Australia or the Intelligence Community, and prior to any critical analysis of the information itself.”
What could have prompted this eagerness? The FBI, as Durham acknowledges, was already in possession of the so-called Steele Dossier, a compendium of lies and innuendo created by Fusion GPS at the behest of the Clinton campaign. The FBI had also been approached by a second source working with Fusion GPS in July 2016. There appears to have been a push for an investigation prompted by the desires of the Clinton campaign and the perceived necessity of stopping Trump. The FBI’s Assistant Legal Attache in London knew the Papadopoulos information was thin, but told the Office of the Inspector General that FBI management was “pushing the matter so hard that ‘there was no stopping the train,’” making it his job to “grease the skids.” 
Meanwhile, in July 2016, US intelligence agencies found out about Russian intelligence suggesting that Hillary had approved a campaign plan to gin up allegations of Trump-Russia collusion. On August 3, CIA Director John Brennan “met with the President, Vice President and other senior Administration officials, including but not limited to the Attorney General (who participated remotely) and the FBI Director” and briefed them on the so-called Clinton Plan. Nobody decided to put a hold on the Trump-Russia investigation, despite the relevant fact that all involved now knew of allegations that the entire situation had been drummed up by the Clinton campaign.
And so, in short, we now know that top officials at the White House and the FBI were aware of Hillary Clinton’s plan to disseminate information falsely claiming Trump-Russia collusion; the FBI knew full well that the intelligence it had making such accusations was flimsy at best; they all went ahead anyway. For the rest of the election cycle and much of Trump’s presidency, the Democrats, media, and intelligence community continued to parrot the Trump-Russia collusion lie.
This collusion is significantly worse than Watergate. It involves the former Secretary of State and Democratic candidate for president laundering false intelligence information to the FBI; and the FBI, overseen by the candidate’s political allies in the Obama administration, using that information as the predicate to open a full-scale investigation knowing full well that the Clinton campaign could well be behind the allegations in the first place. 
This is patently insane. It destroys any semblance of legitimacy in the FBI. It implicates Barack Obama, Joe Biden, James Clapper, John Brennan, and a bevy of other high officials in weaponization of the government to stop Donald Trump. The Russia hoax was much more than a hoax, it turns out. It was a nefarious plan, enacted at the highest levels of government, to corrupt an election and undermine a presidency.

Ben Shapiro 3

The Worst Political Scandal In American History?

Ben Shapiro

Peter Strzok

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) doubled down on Tuesday, calling the just-concluded <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/durham-report-makes-sobering-findings-about-fbis-handling-of-trump-russia-probe" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Durham investigation</a> &#8220;flawed from the start&#8221; and claiming that it had only begun on the political whim of former President Donald Trump.
Schiff made his assessment during an appearance on MSNBC, telling anchor Lawrence O&#8217;Donnell that special counsel <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ben-shapiro-dissects-durhams-report-absolute-madness-doj-needs-to-put-some-heads-on-pikes" target="_blank" rel="noopener">John Durham&#8217;s report</a> had not led to any indictments — much less convictions – which he said was proof that the four years of investigation had netted nothing.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
The Durham investigation was flawed from the start.
It began for a political purpose &#8211; to satisfy Trump. It resulted in two spectacular failures at trial. And ended with nothing to show for four years of effort.
Bottom line: FBI had a good reason to investigate &#8211; Durham didn’t. <a href="https://t.co/kK8sBddGVf">pic.twitter.com/kK8sBddGVf</a>
&mdash; Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) <a href="https://twitter.com/RepAdamSchiff/status/1658576613657780224?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 16, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
O&#8217;Donnell set <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/flashback-schiff-claimed-damning-evidence-of-trump-russia-collusion-it-was-democrat-hoax-durham-report-shows" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Schiff</a> up with his initial question, saying that the Durham investigation had ended &#8220;with a new report about nothing.&#8221;
Schiff readily agreed, saying, &#8220;This is an investigation that started in a flawed manner, it was conducted in a flawed manner, and its conclusion is a flawed conclusion. It began in a flawed way because this was the result of Donald Trump badgering Bill Barr to investigate the investigators.&#8221;
Schiff went on to say that the only reason Durham was even brought in to investigate was Trump&#8217;s insistence that he was the focus of a political &#8220;witch hunt.&#8221; And despite Durham&#8217;s findings indicating a number of departures from proper procedure on behalf of the FBI – and even the bureau&#8217;s own subsequent admission that mistakes had been made with regard to Crossfire Hurricane&#8217;s inception — Schiff insisted that the Mueller investigation had been rooted in a real crime and was therefore begun with just cause.
The &#8220;bottom line,&#8221; according to Schiff, was that the FBI &#8220;had a good reason to investigate Trump&#8221; whereas &#8220;Durham did not&#8221; have a good reason to investigate the FBI.
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Schiff did not go into detail regarding what that &#8220;good reason&#8221; was — and O&#8217;Donnell did not press him on the matter. O&#8217;Donnell also did not bring up the numerous occasions when Schiff had claimed to have <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/report-adam-schiff-knew-russiagate-would-go-nowhere-pursued-trump-russia-connection-anyway" target="_blank" rel="noopener">direct evidence</a> that Trump had colluded with Russia – evidence that Mueller did not find during the course of his investigation, and evidence that Schiff has yet to reveal publicly.

House Judiciary Committee Examines The Situation At The Southern Border

‘Flawed From The Start’: Adam Schiff Doubles Down, Says Durham Investigation Was Political

Adam Schiff Doubles Down, Says Durham Investigation Was Political

Adam Schiff

Congress

Russia

Days after opening a full FBI investigation into connections between Donald Trump and Russia, lead FBI investigator Peter Strzok told a subordinate that “there’s nothing to this, but we have to run it to the ground,” the subordinate — a top official in the Bureau’s London outpost—told Special Counsel John Durham.
Strzok opened a full investigation — skipping preliminary steps — based on nothing but a brief and “vague” account by an Australian diplomat of a conversation in a London bar, and within hours had traveled to London. But when he explained why he had opened the investigation, neither the FBI employees there nor their British counterparts could believe it, according to a report released by Durham on Monday.
The FBI&#8217;s specialists on Russia had heard nothing about ties between Trump and Russia, making them skeptical. Instead of using Russia experts, the FBI then assigned brand-new intelligence analysts to work the most prominent and politically explosive case in the country.
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The FBI&#8217;s Assistant Legal Attache in London (UK ALAT) told the Special Counsel that British intelligence agents “did not assess the information about the Russians and Trump, attributed to Papadopoulos, to be particularly valuable intelligence. Indeed, he told the FBI&#8217;s Inspection Division investigators that &#8216;the British could not believe the Papadopoulos bar conversation was all there was,&#8217; and they were convinced the FBI must have had more information that it was holding back.”
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“Dude, are we telling them everything we know, or is there more to this?” the ALAT wrote to a supervisory special agent.
“That’s all we have. Not holding anything back,” the supervisor replied.
“Damn that’s thin,” the ALAT said.
“I know. It sucks,” the supervisor said.
British agents felt the same way, raising concerns that Papadopolous was a low-level volunteer who seemed “insecure” and trying to impress. The ALAT said that in discussing the matter with a “senior British Intelligence Service-I official, the official was openly skeptical, said the FBI&#8217;s plan for an operation made no sense, and asked UK ALAT-1 why the FBI did not just go to Papadopoulos and ask him what they wanted to know.”
The FBI&#8217;s specialists on Russia had also heard nothing about ties between Trump and Russia. FBI officials in London assumed there was much more evidence given Strzok’s urgency, but after it quickly became clear that there was not, they had to “grease the skids” for it anyway because of pressure from top leadership, the ALAT said.
“From his vantage point, UK ALAT-1 saw that FBI executive management was pushing the matter so hard that &#8216;there was no stopping the train,&#8217; and he told the OIG that, &#8216;I mean it was, this thing was corning. So my job was to grease the skids for it, and that&#8217;s what I did,'&#8221; the report said.
FBI lawyer and Strzok mistress Lisa Page testified that the FBI used &#8220;line level analysts who [were] super experts on Russia,&#8221; but  the FBI&#8217;s Inspection Division found that the intelligence analysts &#8220;selected for Crossfire Hurricane were uniformly inexperienced&#8221; and that &#8220;[n]one of them were subject matter expert analysts.&#8221; Aside from Brian Auten, an FBI agent who has been criticized for allegedly working to shut down an investigation into Hunter Biden, &#8220;the most experienced analyst had less than nine months of experience working in that capacity, two had less than four months experience, and two came straight from analyst training,&#8221; the report said.
At the time, Strzok was Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI&#8217;s Counterintelligence Division. After his hyper-anti Trump text messages with his mistress were exposed, he has since become an open partisan with regular TV appearances. His comment, as recalled by the ALAT, could suggest that Strzok knowingly conducted a baseless operation from Day 1. The Russia probe went on to overshadow much of the Trump presidency, despite Special Counsel Robert Mueller previously concluding that there was no evidence of a conspiracy.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/durham-report-makes-sobering-findings-about-fbis-handling-of-trump-russia-probe?preview_id=551559&amp;preview_nonce=f5e3753ddf&amp;_thumbnail_id=551549&amp;preview=true">Read the Durham report</a>

‘There’s Nothing To This, But We Have To Run It To The Ground,’ Anti-Trump FBI Agent Strzok Said: Durham

'There's Nothing To This, But We Have To Run It To The Ground,' Anti-Trump FBI Agent Strzok Said: Durham

The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/fbi">FBI</a> acknowledged in a statement Monday afternoon that there were problems with its 2016 Trump-Russia investigation and that it has taken numerous actions to ensure that it does not happen again.
The FBI&#8217;s statement came in response to special counsel John Durham’s 320-page report on the origins of the investigation, which was released on Monday, that found that the FBI had no evidence to support launching the investigation and found “sobering” differences in how the FBI approached the Trump probe compared to other politically sensitive investigations.
&#8220;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,&#8221; the FBI said in a statement. &#8220;Had those reforms been in place in 2016, the missteps identified in the report could have been prevented.&#8221;
&#8220;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,&#8221; the statement added.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Statement on Report by Special Counsel John Durham<a href="https://t.co/lcow0ea3mG">https://t.co/lcow0ea3mG</a> <a href="https://t.co/T4vXqoOMrp">pic.twitter.com/T4vXqoOMrp</a>
&mdash; FBI (@FBI) <a href="https://twitter.com/FBI/status/1658212156817416204?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 15, 2023</a></blockquote>
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Former President Donald Trump responded to the report by saying that Americans had been “scammed.”
“WOW! After extensive research, Special Counsel John Durham concludes the FBI never should have launched the Trump-Russia Probe!” Trump wrote on social media. “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!”
Trump later <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-heavy-price-pay-comey-democrats-release-durham-report">said</a> in an interview that the Democrats had started a “long-running and treasonous charade” and that “there must be a heavy price to pay for putting our country through this.”
This is a breaking news story; refresh the page for updates.

Christopher Wray

FBI Releases Statement Acknowledging Problems With Origins Of Trump-Russia Probe

2016 Election

Elections

Former President Donald Trump responded to special counsel John Durham&#8217;s report on Monday about the origins of the FBI’s Trump-Russia investigation by saying that Americans were &#8220;scammed.&#8221;
Durham&#8217;s 320-page report found that the FBI had no evidence to support launching the investigation and found “sobering” differences in how the FBI approached the Trump probe compared to other politically sensitive investigations.
&#8220;WOW! After extensive research, Special Counsel John Durham concludes the FBI never should have launched the Trump-Russia Probe!&#8221; Trump wrote on social media. &#8220;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!&#8221;
Trump later <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-heavy-price-pay-comey-democrats-release-durham-report">said</a> in an interview that the Democrats had started a &#8220;long-running and treasonous charade&#8221; and that &#8220;there must be a heavy price to pay for putting our country through this.&#8221;
The report said the FBI immediately opened a full investigation based on a brief note from Australian diplomat Alexander Downer recounting that he had met with George Papadopoulos, a volunteer with the Trump campaign, in which he mentioned that Russia might have damaging information on Democrat presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. “At the time of the opening of Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI did not possess any intelligence showing that anyone associated with the Trump campaign was in contact with Russian intelligence officers at any point during the campaign,” the Durham report said.
The probe later relied on the “Steele dossier,” which came from a circular loop of people with little insight into Russia — except that some of them had been on the FBI’s radar for possible misconduct or ties to Russian intelligence in their own right, it said. The FBI knew it was nothing but “rumor and speculation,” it said.
“Upon receipt of unevaluated intelligence information from Australia, the FBI swiftly opened the Crossfire Hurricane investigation,&#8221; the report said. &#8220;In particular, at the direction of Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, Deputy Assistant Director for Counterintelligence Peter Strzok opened Crossfire Hurricane immediately. Strzok, at a minimum, had pronounced hostile feelings toward Trump.”
This report has been updated to include additional information.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump Visits Scotland

Trump Responds To Findings In Special Counsel John Durham’s Report On Origins Of Russia Probe

Special Counsel John Durham, who was tasked by former Attorney General Bill Barr to examine the propriety of the FBI&#8217;s investigation of President Trump, released a 320-page report Monday that found that the FBI had no evidence to support a Trump-Russia scandal when it began its investigation, and found &#8220;sobering&#8221; differences in how it approached the Trump probe compared to other politically sensitive investigations.
You can read the report <a href="https://www.justice.gov/storage/durhamreport.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.
It said the FBI immediately opened a full investigation based on a brief note from an Australian diplomat recounting that he had met with George Papadopoulos, a volunteer with the Trump campaign, in which he mentioned that Russia might have information negative to Hillary Clinton. &#8220;At the time of the opening of Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI did not possess any intelligence showing that anyone associated with the Trump campaign was in contact with Russian intelligence officers at any point during the campaign,&#8221; the Durham report said.
The probe later relied on the &#8220;Steele dossier,&#8221; which came from a circular loop of people with little insight into Russia — except that some of them had been on the FBI&#8217;s radar for possible misconduct or ties to Russian intelligence in their own right, it said. The FBI knew it was nothing but &#8220;rumor and speculation,&#8221; it said.
&#8220;Upon receipt of unevaluated intelligence information from Australia, the FBI swiftly opened the Crossfire Hurricane investigation. In particular, at the direction of Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, Deputy Assistant Director for Counterintelligence Peter Strzok opened Crossfire Hurricane immediately. Strzok, at a minimum, had pronounced hostile feelings toward Trump.&#8221;
&#8220;The matter was opened as a full investigation without ever having spoken to the persons who provided the information. Further, the FBI did so without (i) any significant review of its own intelligence databases, (ii) collection and examination of any relevant intelligence from other U.S. intelligence entities, (iii) interviews of witnesses essential to understand the raw information it had received or (iv) using any of the standard analytical tools typicallv employed by the FBI in evaluating raw intelligence,&#8221; the report concluded.
&#8220;Had it done so &#8230; the FBI would have learned that their own experienced Russia analysts had no information about Trump being involved with Russian leadership officials, nor were others in sensitive positions at the CIA, the NSA, and the Department of State aware of such evidence concerning the subject. In addition, FBI records prepared by Strzok in February and March 2017 show that at the time of the opening of Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI had no information in its holdings indicating that at any time during the campaign anyone in the Trump campaign had been in contact with any Russian intelligence officials,&#8221; it said.
&#8220;In the eighteen months leading up to the 2016 election, the FBI was required to deal with a number of proposed investigations that had the potential of affecting the election. In each of those instances, the FBI moved with considerable caution. In one such matter&#8230; FBI Headquarters and Department officials required defensive briefings to be provided to Clinton and other officials or candidates who appeared to be the targets of foreign interference,&#8221; it said. &#8220;In another, the FBI elected to end an investigation after one of its longtime and valuable CHSs went beyond what was authorized and made an improper and possibly illegal financial contribution to the Clinton campaign on behalf of a foreign entity as a precursor to a much larger donation being contemplated.&#8221;
&#8220;And in a third, the Clinton Foundation matter, both senior FBI and Department officials placed restrictions on how those matters were to be handled such that essentially no investigative activities occurred for months leading up to the election. These examples are also markedly different from the FBI&#8217;s actions with respect to other highly significant intelligence it received from a trusted foreign source pointing to a Clinton campaign plan to vilify Trump by tying him to Vladimir Putin so as to divert attention from her own concerns relating to her use of a private email server,&#8221; it said.
&#8220;Within days after opening Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI opened full investigations on four members of the Trump campaign team: George Papadopoulos, Carter Page, Paul Manafort, and Michael Flynn. No defensive briefing was provided to Trump or anyone in the campaign concerning the information received from Australia that suggested there might be some type of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians, either prior to or after these investigations were opened. Instead, the FBI began working on requests for the use of FISA authorities against Page and Papadopoulos.&#8221;
&#8220;Our investigation determined that the Crossfire Hurricane investigators did not and could not corroborate any of the substantive allegations contained in the Steele reporting. Nor was Steele able to produce corroboration for any of the reported allegations, even after being offered $1 million or more by the FBI for such corroboration.
&#8220;The FBI learned that Steele relied primarily on a U.S.-based Russian national, Igor Danchenko, to collect information that ultimately formed the core allegations found in the reports. Specifically, our investigation discovered that Danchenko himself had told another person that he (Danchenko) was responsible for 80% of the &#8216;intel&#8217; and 50% of the analysis contained in the Steele Dossier.&#8221;
&#8220;In December 2016, the FBI identified Danchenko as Steele&#8217;s primary sub-source. Danchenko agreed to meet with the FBI and, under the protection of an immunity letter&#8230; the FBI conducted multiple interviews of Danchenko regarding, among other things, the information he provided to Steele,&#8221; it said. &#8220;Danchenko was unable to provide any corroborating evidence to support the Steele allegations, and further, described his interactions with his sub-sources as &#8216;rumor and speculation&#8217; and conversations of a casual nature. Significant parts of what Danchenko told the FBI were inconsistent with what Steele told the FBI during his prior interviews in October 2016 and September 2017. At no time, however, was the FISC informed of these inconsistencies. Moreover, notwithstanding the repeated assertions in the Page FISA applications that Steele&#8217;s primary sub-source was based in Russia, Danchenko for many years had lived in the Washington, D.C. area.&#8221;
&#8220;The FBI knew in January 2017 that Danchenko had been the subject of an FBI counterintelligence investigation from 2009 to 2011. In late 2008, while Danchenko was employed by the Brookings Institution, he engaged two fellow employees about whether one of the employees might be willing or able in the future to provide classified information in exchange for money. According to one employee, Danchenko believed that he (the employee might be following a mentor into the incoming Obama administration and have access to classified information. During this exchange, Danchenko informed the employee that he had access to people who were willing to pay for classified information.&#8221;
&#8220;The FBI converted its investigation into a full investigation after learning that Danchenko (i) had been identified as an associate of two FBI counterintelligence subjects and (ii) had previous contact with the Russian Embassy and known Russian intelligence officers&#8230; at that earlier time, Agents had interviewed several former colleagues of Danchenko who raised concerns about Danchenko&#8217;s potential involvement with Russian intelligence. For example, one such colleague, who had interned at a U.S. intelligence agency, informed the Office that Danchenko frequently inquired about that person&#8217;s knowledge of a specific Russian military matter.&#8221;
This is a breaking report and will be updated.

READ IT: Durham Report Makes ‘Sobering’ Findings About FBI’s Handling Of Trump-Russia Probe

READ IT: Durham Report Makes 'Sobering' Findings About FBI's Handling Of Trump-Russia Probe

The future of a controversial <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/fisa" target="_blank" rel="noopener">surveillance program</a> is in jeopardy as lawmakers debate its renewal amid increasing skepticism of the American<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/national-intelligence" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> intelligence community</a>. 
Debate in Congress has continued on the renewal of  Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) before it expires at the end of the year, which allows intelligence agencies to obtain the online communications of foreign nationals without a warrant. Critics have raised concerns that lack of oversight of the program also allows the communications of American citizens to be obtained without a warrant or due process.  
“Section 702 has kept American citizens safe and our U.S. service members abroad out of danger,” said Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH), the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, in a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/fbi-surveillance-section-702-congress-ca84a405ac700718990bbab7ef5db1e6" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a> to the Associated Press. “However, changes must be made in order to prevent further FBI misuse and abuse of this vital national security tool.”
Section 702, first implemented in 2008, was <a href="https://apnews.com/article/politics-united-states-government-us-republican-party-surveillance-donald-trump-aa98d51e59d02a1361833d1a4f431e23?utm_campaign=TrueAnthem&amp;utm_medium=AP&amp;utm_source=Twitter" target="_blank" rel="noopener">renewed</a> by then-President Donald Trump in 2018 even after he <a href="https://apnews.com/article/north-america-donald-trump-politics-077b8a0f34354149ac2b55ce533f203a" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> the power was linked to the widely discredited Steele Dossier that purported to have evidence of collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign. After initial skepticism, Trump renewed the powers following a discussion with then-House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI). 
During a <a href="https://judiciary.house.gov/committee-activity/hearings/fixing-fisa-how-law-designed-protect-americans-has-been-weaponized" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hearing</a> on Thursday by the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance, Rep. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/matt-gaetz" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Matt Gaetz</a> (R-FL) asked a panel of witnesses, including Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz and two panelists from the U.S. Privacy and Civil Liberties Board, about how many federal government employees had access to FISA data. 
“If I represent to you that we believe there may be north of 10,000 people in the federal government who can perform [FISA] queries, would anyone here have a basis to disagree with that?” Gaetz asked. The panelists <a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/over-10000-fbi-agents-can-access-data-from-secretive-surveillance-program-inspectors-general_5225588.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">all said</a> no. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Upwards of 10,000 FBI personnel may have access to section 702-acquired FISA data. 
10,000! 
Why&#39;s that number so big? 
🎥 : <a href="https://twitter.com/RepMattGaetz?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@RepMattGaetz</a> <a href="https://t.co/tKyeot0KQy">pic.twitter.com/tKyeot0KQy</a>
&mdash; House Judiciary GOP 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 (@JudiciaryGOP) <a href="https://twitter.com/JudiciaryGOP/status/1651588376196182016?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 27, 2023</a></blockquote>
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In his <a href="https://oig.justice.gov/sites/default/files/2023-04/4-27-2023.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">prepared statement</a> to the committee, Horowitz noted that the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane investigation&#8217;s use of FISA to go after Donald Trump aide Carter Page, which was supposed to look into alleged collusion between Trump and Russia, was deeply flawed. 
“We identified multiple instances in which factual assertions relied upon by the FISC in the FISA applications were inaccurate, incomplete, or unsupported by appropriate documentation, based upon information the FBI had in its possession at the time the applications were filed,” he said. 
<a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-9096" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://onelink.to/dwapp&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1682517572037000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0eoxTLnzKr3rl49f2LXGnU">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP</a>
Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) said on Thursday that he believed that Section 702 was “already beyond repair.”
“FISA section 702 explicitly states that it may only be used to target non-U.S. persons located abroad for the purpose of obtaining foreign intelligence information,” Biggs said. “But it’s clear that the government has used communications acquired through this program to conduct backdoor searches of Americans’ communications.”
Several Democrats, including Rep. Jerry Nadler and Pramila Jayapal, have also expressed skepticism about the renewal of Section 702. 
Last month, FBI Director Christopher Wray acknowledged that the bureau had made mistakes during its investigations. “Like any major institution, we have made mistakes,” he said. “To me, the mark of a leading organization is not whether it makes mistakes or not &#8230; but whether or not we learn from those mistakes. And I think we have.”
Without any action from Congress, the surveillance program will expire at the end of the year.

US-POLITICS-FBI-WRAY

Future Of Controversial Surveillance Program In Question As Lawmakers Probe FBI Over Abuses

FISA

Matt Gaetz

National Intelligence

National Security

A top <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/fbi" target="_blank" rel="noopener">FBI</a> official accused Trump-hating former agent <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/doj-details-several-security-violations-against-anti-trump-agent-peter-strzok" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Peter Strzok</a> of doing long-term damage to the bureau’s reputation with a “sustained pattern of bad judgment” and “selfishness” in the newly released draft of the 2018 letter firing him.
David Bowdich, who was deputy director of the bureau when he penned the brutally harsh draft of the dismissal letter, told Strzok the damage he caused to the bureau would last for years. He referred specifically to Strzok’s use of “an FBI device,” an apparent reference to the shocking text messages sent on bureau cell phones between Strzok and his paramour, Lisa Page, in which vowed to stop former President Trump from being elected in 2016.
“While there is no doubt your 21 years of service to the organization cannot and should not be erased, it is difficult to fathom the repeated, sustained errors of judgment you made while serving as the lead agent in two of the most high profile investigations in the country,” Bowdich wrote in the August 8, 2018 letter. “Though the Office of the Inspector General found no evidence of bias impacted any of your or the FBI’s investigative actions or decisions, your sustained pattern of bad judgment in the use of an FBI device has called into question for many of the decisions made during both the Clinton e-mail investigation and the initial states of the Russian Collusion investigation.&#8221;
“In short, your repeated selfishness has called into question the credibility of the entire FBI.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Strzok&#39;s dismissal letter was published today:
&quot;In my 23 years in the FBI, I have not seen a more impactful series of missteps that has called into question the entire organization and more thoroughly damaged the FBI’s reputation.&quot; 
h/t <a href="https://twitter.com/walkafyre?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@walkafyre</a> <a href="https://t.co/rFILnxDL84">pic.twitter.com/rFILnxDL84</a>
&mdash; Hans Mahncke (@HansMahncke) <a href="https://twitter.com/HansMahncke/status/1575986650643304448?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 30, 2022</a></blockquote>
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The draft letter was an attachment in a DOJ response in Strzok&#8217;s wide-ranging federal lawsuit alleging violation of his right to privacy and wrongful termination. Strzok&#8217;s attorneys deposed Bowdich and are now trying to depose Trump and FBI Director Christopher Wray in a bid to show his firing was political. The DOJ attached the draft letter to rebut the idea that Strzok&#8217;s firing was for political reasons.
Bowdich has since left the bureau and is vice president of global security for Disney. Strzok, despite being humiliated by the exposure of his emails, extramarital affair, and repeated bungling of investigations, has written a book and frequently appears on hard-left cable news channel MSNBC to defend the FBI against accusations of political bias.
Strzok served as deputy assistant director of the bureau’s counterintelligence division, leading the investigation into phony Trump-Russia collusion claims and before that, the probe of Hillary Clinton’s illegal use of a personal email server to send and receive classified documents.
Strzok was first fired from <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/robert-mueller" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Special Counsel Robert Mueller</a>’s team and then from the bureau after the Department of Justice’s inspector general in 2017 turned up the damning emails exchanged between him and Page. In them, the pair expressed contempt for Trump and his supporters and Strzok hinted at plans to derail his campaign.
Bowdich claimed Inspector General Michael Horowitz found no evidence that political bias affected FBI investigations involving Strzok, but said the public perception was otherwise.
“In my 23 years in the FBI, I have not seen a more impactful series of missteps which called into question the entire organization and more thoroughly damaged the reputation of the organization,” wrote Bowdich. “In our role as FBI employees we sometimes make unpopular decisions, but the public should be able to examine our work and not have to question motives.”
The two-page letter ends with a blistering reference to Strzok’s failure as a public servant.
“As Deputy Assistant Director, you were expected to be a leader who was beyond reproach and set an example for not only our direct subordinates, but others throughout the organization who watched and observed your behaviors and actions,” Bowdich wrote. “You failed to do so repeatedly and put your own interests [above] the interests of the organization. Though it pains me to do so, it is for this reason that I am dismissing you from the rolls of the FBI.”
In addition to the texts ending Strzok&#8217;s career, they appear to have wrecked his personal life. In one exchange the DOJ revealed in response to Strzok’s wrongful termination suit, the pair discuss Strzok’s wife seeing their correspondence.
“My wife has my phone,” Strzok wrote.
“Your wife left me a VM,” Page replied. “Am I supposed to respond? She thinks we’re having an affair. Should I call and correct her understanding? Leave this to you to address?”
“I don’t know,” Strzok wrote. “I said we were close friends and nothing more. She knows I sent you flowers. I said you were having a tough week.”

READ IT: FBI’s Brutal Draft Letter Firing Disgraced Agent Peter Strzok Revealed

READ IT: FBI's Brutal Draft Letter Firing Disgraced Agent Peter Strzok Revealed

Department of Justice

Prosecutors have scrutinized a former top official in the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/fbi" target="_blank" rel="noopener">FBI</a> who played a pivotal role in the bureau’s investigation of former President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign over his alleged ties to Russia and other foreign governments.
A grand jury assembled last year subpoenaed at least one person for information on former FBI special agent Charles McGonigal, who was <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/news/press-releases/press-releases/charles-mcgonigal-named-special-agent-in-charge-of-the-counterintelligence-division-for-the-new-york-field-office" target="_blank" rel="noopener">appointed</a> to run the counterintelligence division of the FBI field office in New York City in October of 2016. Prosecutors scrutinized McGonigal’s alleged dealings with a top aid to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, according to court documents obtained by <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/exclusive-fbi-charles-mcgonigal-trump-russia-grand-jury-oleg-deripaska-2022-9" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Insider</a>.
It is unknown whether the grand jury is still convened or whether it was investigating McGonigal or someone with whom he had dealings. The documents reviewed by Insider did not suggest McGonigal had broken any law.
The subpoena requested information on the former FBI official and the consulting firm Spectrum Risk Solutions. Soon after the subpoena was issued, former senior Soviet Foreign Ministry official Sergey Shestakov <a href="https://forensicnews.net/retired-top-fbi-counterintelligence-official-worked-with-ex-russian-intelligence-officer-close-to-deripaska-foreign-agent-paperwork-reveals/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">filed</a> as a foreign agent for Yevgenyi Fokin, a top aid to Deripaska. Shestakov’s filing showed that McGonigal aided Shestakov in making connections between Fokin and Spectrum, and Fokin and the law firm Kobre &amp; Kim.
“If McGonigal is mixed up in any way shape or form with Deripaska, that strikes me as unseemly, to put it politely,” Tim Weiner, who wrote “Enemies: A History of the FBI,” told Insider.
Prior to working as head of counterintelligence in New York, McGonigal served in the same position, but for the FBI Field Office in Washington, D.C. McGonigal was one of the first FBI officials to hear allegations that a Trump campaign official had <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/16/us/politics/crossfire-hurricane-trump-russia-fbi-mueller-investigation.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> an Australian diplomat that the Russians had damaging information on then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. The allegations were later believed to be about the WikiLeaks hack of the Democratic National Committee, which <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/john-podesta-wikileaks-hacked-emails-229304" target="_blank" rel="noopener">released</a> emails from the Clinton campaign as well.
Also while McGonigal was in D.C., the bureau began <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/politics/steele-timeline/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">receiving</a> briefings from former British spy Christopher Steele on reports he was drafting that would eventually become the discredited Steele Dossier. McGonigal was key in the launch of FBI operation Crossfire Hurricane into the Trump campaign’s alleged ties to Russia. On October 4, 2016, the FBI announced that then-Director James Comey had promoted McGonigal to head the counterintelligence division in the New York City Field Office.
The investigation into Trump’s alleged ties to Russia hounded the former president for years into his term, eventually ending in a report by special counsel Robert Mueller concluding that investigators found no evidence of Trump-Russia collusion. An inspector general probe into surveillance applications made by the FBI during its investigation of the Trump campaign found that the applications <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/03/31/824510255/justice-department-ig-finds-widespread-problems-with-fbis-fisa-applications" target="_blank" rel="noopener">contained</a> “apparent errors or inadequately supported facts,” with many due to the salacious and unsupported details contained in the Steele Dossier.

Ex-FBI Agent Who Played Key Role In Crossfire Hurricane Scrutinized Over Alleged Russia Ties: Report

Washington D.C.

The disciplinary process of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/fbi">FBI</a> agents who mishandled the 2016 Crossfire Hurricane investigation has “slowed” while special counsel John Durham&#8217;s investigation continues, according to FBI Director <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/christopher-wray">Christopher Wray</a>.
Wray testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday. The director’s testimony comes as the bureau is again mired in controversy over recent whistleblower allegations that it wrongly dismissed potentially incriminating evidence against Hunter Biden during the 2020 election. Whistleblowers also accused the bureau of exaggerating the threat from domestic extremists.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) questioned the FBI director on the apparent lack of movement on disciplining staff involved with the seriously flawed investigation into false claims of Trump campaign collusion with Russia.
“Well, we’ve taken a whole slew of actions in response to the Crossfire Hurricane report. I think over 40-plus corrective measures and so forth,” Wray said.
The senator from North Carolina responded: “Has anybody in the bureau been fired or disciplined?”
“There are a number of people who are currently in what we call the office of professional responsibility, which is our disciplinary arm. You may wonder why has that not yielded its results yet, and that is because we are working closely with, cooperating closely with, and assisting the Durham investigation,” Wray answered. “And so that whole process, which is not unusual, has been sort of slowed down to make sure that it does not interfere with the Durham investigation.”
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Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz released the <a href="https://oig.justice.gov/reports/2019/o20012.pdf">findings</a> of his investigation into the origins of Crossfire Hurricane in December 2019, identifying “at least 17 significant errors or omissions in the [former Trump campaign adviser] Carter Page FISA applications, and many additional errors in the Woods Procedures.”
After the release of the report, Wray, who became the FBI’s director in 2017 after the firing of his predecessor James Comey, pledged to prioritize institutional reform and accountability.
“[W]e will review the performance and conduct of certain FBI employees who were referenced in the Report’s recommendations — including managers, supervisors, and senior officials at the time. The FBI will take appropriate disciplinary action where warranted,” Wray wrote in a <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/news/press-releases/press-releases/fbi-director-christopher-wray-response-to-inspector-general-report">letter</a> to the inspector general.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, <a href="https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/news-releases/whistleblowers-reports-reveal-double-standard-in-pursuit-of-politically-charged-investigations-by-senior-fbi-doj-officials">wrote</a> Wray last month detailing whistleblower allegations that at least one person at the FBI ostensibly under review for mishandling the Crossfire Hurricane investigation is involved with further misconduct involving the bureau’s investigation into Hunter Biden.
In August 2020, FBI Supervisory Intelligence Analyst Brian Auten falsely assessed the damaging information that the bureau had received on Biden as fake. Auten dismissed the verifiable and potentially damning reports on Biden as disinformation, whistleblowers allege, according to Grassley.
“FBI Headquarters” used Auten’s report to “improperly discredit negative Hunter Biden information as disinformation and caused investigative activity to cease,” Grassley wrote. “[T]he allegations provided to my office appear to indicate that there was a scheme in place among certain FBI officials to undermine derogatory information connected to Hunter Biden by falsely suggesting it was disinformation.”

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