Seasoned prosecutor <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/john-durham" target="_blank" rel="noopener">John Durham</a>&#8216;s restrained approach to investigating how top FBI brass may have cozied up to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/hillary-clinton" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hillary Clinton</a>&#8216;s 2016 campaign vexed members of his special counsel team, journalist Seymour Hersh reported on Thursday.
Hersh, a Pulitzer Prize winner who recently <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/they-cant-be-that-stupid-journalist-slams-nyt-for-claiming-u-s-officials-suggested-pro-ukraine-group-attacked-nord-steam-pipelines" target="_blank" rel="noopener">faced controvers</a>y by alleging that the United States blew up the Nord Stream pipeline, <a href="https://seymourhersh.substack.com/p/russiagates-missing-pieces" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote in his latest Substack article</a> how the &#8220;real story&#8221; of Russiagate involves FBI officials who &#8220;chose to look the other way&#8221; when the Clinton team cooked up ways to link then-candidate Donald Trump to Russia that culminated in British ex-spy <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fbi-offered-to-pay-steele-1m-for-anti-trump-evidence-paid-possible-russian-spy-despite-knowing-his-info-was-bad" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Christopher Steele&#8217;s now-discredited dossier</a> and unfounded allegations of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/durham-finds-researcher-felt-threatened-by-schiff-staffer" target="_blank" rel="noopener">an Alfa Bank backchannel</a>.
&#8220;It became evident to some members of Durham’s staff that the real story was not about whether or not Trump had pee parties in a Moscow hotel room — one of the headline-producing allegations in the Steele Dossier that consumed the Washington press corps in the aftermath of Trump’s victory in the 2016 election,&#8221; Hersh wrote. &#8220;The issue was whether the Clinton campaign, in its constant leaking of false accusations and false data, had crossed a line.&#8221;
&#8220;I was told that there was tension and frustration over Durham’s initial lack of interest, or reluctance, to go beyond his investigative mandate and look closely at the possibility that some senior FBI officials had openly joined ranks with the Clinton campaign, with its drumbeat of spurious allegations, because, in some cases, of a shared belief in the importance of a Clinton victory in the fall election,&#8221; Hersh said. &#8220;Another factor, I was told, was the possibility of promotions — even to high-level Justice Department offices — in a potential Clinton administration.&#8221;
There has already been some reporting on consternation within the Durham team&#8217;s ranks. Durham&#8217;s No. 2 prosecutor, Nora Dannehy, resigned in 2020 in what <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/26/us/politics/durham-trump-russia-barr.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The New York Times described</a> as a &#8220;culmination of a series of disputes between them over prosecutorial ethics.&#8221; The newspaper also reported that two other prosecutors objected to indicting former Clinton campaign Michael Sussmann, who was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-jury-clears-former-clinton-attorney-michael-sussmann-of-lying-to-fbi" target="_blank" rel="noopener">acquitted last year</a> by a D.C. jury on a charge of lying to the FBI.
The full extent of what Durham ultimately discovered about &#8220;Clinton Plan intelligence&#8221; during his years-long inquiry remains shrouded, but the Department of Justice last month <a href="https://www.justice.gov/storage/durhamreport.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">released his 306-page report</a>. It made headlines for how it heavily criticized the FBI&#8217;s investigation into alleged ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.
&#8220;Durham, to his credit, did follow the leads that came to his office, but he left them in secrecy—perhaps in the Classified Appendix or perhaps completely off the record,&#8221; Hersh wrote. &#8220;He was seen by some as being mandated only to investigate FBI management shortcomings and believed the public needed a full accounting of the FBI bungling.&#8221;
&#8220;It was not clear whether Durham, had he decided to expand the parameters of his inquiry to include the implications of the intelligence about the Clinton campaign, would have been allowed to do so,&#8221; Hersh said. &#8220;As Durham himself writes, &#8216;any attempted prosecution premised on the Clinton Plan intelligence would face what in all likelihood would be insurmountable classification issues given the highly sensitive nature of the information itself.'&#8221;
Durham is scheduled to testify about his investigation before two committees next month. The special counsel is set to speak with the House Intelligence Committee in a closed session on June 20 and appear before the House Judiciary Committee in a public setting on June 21, <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/justice/john-durham-testify-house-judiciary-committee-june" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to The Washington Examiner</a>.

John Durham

Legendary Reporter Claims Durham’s Reluctance To Probe Clinton-FBI Alliance Irked Team

Hersh Reports Durham Irked Team With Reluctance To Investigate Clinton-FBI Alliance

2016 Election

Hillary Clinton

U.S.

Special counsel <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/john-durham" target="_blank" rel="noopener">John Durham</a> is set to testify on Capitol Hill next month after releasing his report excoriating the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/fbi" target="_blank" rel="noopener">FBI</a> over its handling of investigations into the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia.
Durham was tasked with investigating Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI’s 2016 investigation into Trump-Russia collusion, and other related activities, in May of 2019. Former Attorney General Bill Barr gave Durham special counsel status in December of 2020 to protect the investigation as the White House changed hands from former President <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/donald-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a> to President <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/joe-biden" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Joe Biden</a>.
Durham ended his roughly four-year investigation last week after the Department of Justice released a 306-page <a href="https://www.justice.gov/storage/durhamreport.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> containing Durham’s findings. The report painted a damning picture of an FBI that disregarded its mission and central principles in order to pursue a partisan investigation into Trump.
House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) immediately sought to have Durham testify about his investigation. Committee spokesman Russel Dye said Friday that the hearing would take place on June 21, according to the <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/05/26/durham-to-testify-next-month-on-fbi-bias-in-trump-russia-probe/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">New York Post</a>.
Durham found 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.
“[T]he answer is not the creation of new rules but a renewed fidelity to the old,” Durham wrote. “The promulgation of additional rules and regulations to be learned in yet more training sessions would likely prove to be a fruitless exercise if the FBI’s guiding principles of ‘Fidelity, Bravery and Integrity’ are not engrained in the hearts and minds of those sworn to meet the FBI&#8217; s mission of ‘Protect[ing] the American People and Uphold[ing] the Constitution of the United States.’”
Despite Durham’s harsh review of the FBI’s handling of its Trump investigation and other intelligence work, he did not recommend bringing any more charges over the matter.
Jordan <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nothing-is-off-the-table-jim-jordan-outlines-response-to-durham-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> Sunday that his committee would look through the report and pick up on leads that could lead to a fuller picture of the inner workings of the FBI.
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“Are there people that were highlighted in the Durham investigation and the Durham report that we need to talk to on the Judiciary Committee? We’re going to give that a good, hard look,” Jordan said on Fox News.
“Nothing is off the table,” he added, “because it is critical the American people understand how their government — their agencies — have been turned on them, the taxpayer, and we get all the facts out there.”

John Durham Set To Testify In Congress Over Damning Report On FBI

Congress

Donald Trump

Jim Jordan

Washington D.C.

A senior <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/fbi" target="_blank" rel="noopener">FBI</a> official stunned GOP members of Congress on Tuesday upon testifying that she has not read or even been briefed on special counsel <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/john-durham" target="_blank" rel="noopener">John Durham</a>&#8216;s report.
Jill Murphy, the FBI&#8217;s deputy assistant director of counterintelligence, said during a hearing that she has not &#8220;had time&#8221; to read the report that was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-john-durhams-years-long-investigation-into-trump-russia-collusion-investigators-is-over" target="_blank" rel="noopener">released early last week</a>, though she intends to get to it.
The report, which came at the conclusion of a years-long inquiry, heavily criticized the FBI probe into alleged links between <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/donald-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a>&#8216;s 2016 campaign and Russia.
Rep. August Pfluger (R-TX), chairman of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterterrorism, Law Enforcement, and Intelligence, <a href="https://twitter.com/RepPfluger/status/1661125710981857281" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said he was &#8220;speechless&#8221;</a> upon hearing that Murphy had not read the report.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
The FBI&#39;s Deputy Assistant Director of Counterintelligence tells <a href="https://twitter.com/HomelandGOP?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@HomelandGOP</a>: 
&quot;I have not read the Durham report.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/3EOlLHVpPG">pic.twitter.com/3EOlLHVpPG</a>
&mdash; Rep. August Pfluger (@RepPfluger) <a href="https://twitter.com/RepPfluger/status/1661125710981857281?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 23, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
“I would highly recommend reading that because we spent four years discussing that — there was uncorroborated evidence. The Durham report specifically outlines the outcome of that. It’s very disappointing to hear this,&#8221; he said.
Although the hearing was focused on <a href="https://homeland.house.gov/tomorrow-at-2pm-pfluger-to-hold-subcommittee-hearing-on-combating-ccp-aggression-with-dhs-fbi-witnesses/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chinese Communist Party &#8220;aggression,&#8221;</a> other members of the subcommittee took the opportunity to talk about Durham&#8217;s report.
Under <a href="https://twitter.com/townhallcom/status/1661102253778804743?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">questioning by Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC)</a>, Murphy conceded that she had not even been briefed on Durham&#8217;s report.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/RepDanBishop?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@RepDanBishop</a>: &quot;The Durham Report &quot;has been out since the 12th of this month&#8230;Mr. Goldman&#39;s obviously been briefed on it&#8230;! Why is that not a matter of such import that you would want urgently to understand what the special counsel concluded&#8230;?
FBI Assistant Director of… <a href="https://t.co/nNcEpuEnlt">pic.twitter.com/nNcEpuEnlt</a>
&mdash; Townhall.com (@townhallcom) <a href="https://twitter.com/townhallcom/status/1661102253778804743?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 23, 2023</a></blockquote>
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Bishop said the report was &#8220;devastating&#8221; to the FBI and should be of &#8220;grave concern&#8221; to Murphy in particular because of her role.
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&#8220;Sir, if you&#8217;d like a brief on the Durham report from the Counterintelligence Division, I&#8217;m happy to take that back,&#8221; Murphy said upon being pressed about why she has not urgently dug into the special counsel&#8217;s findings.
“Wow, that sounds almost contemptuous,” Bishop shot back, adding later: &#8220;I’m just without words, that the FBI is unconcerned.&#8221;
Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY), who offered a <a href="https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1661099791051268108" target="_blank" rel="noopener">negative critique</a> of the Durham inquiry, took aim at his Republican colleagues for being heavily critical of the FBI and even talking about <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/matt-gaetz-announces-resolution-dedicated-to-stopping-fbi-hq-funds" target="_blank" rel="noopener">defunding the agency</a>.
&#8220;The problem they have is that the FBI is doing its job in investigating their dear leader Donald Trump,&#8221; <a href="https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1661100628725096449" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Goldman said</a>. &#8220;And if you can undermine the investigator, if you can undermine independent journalists doing investigative reporting, then you can undermine our entire system of democracy.&#8221;

Senior FBI Counterintel Official Stuns Lawmakers With Admission On Durham Report

Politics

The most interesting candidate in the 2024 election has to be <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/robert-f-kennedy-jr" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Democratic hopeful Robert F. Kennedy, Jr</a>. – if not for his career path and family history, then for his willingness to buck the D.C. establishment narrative and attack The Uniparty.
In his latest campaign statement regarding the FBI&#8217;s 2016 election interference, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/congrats-to-the-u-s-intelligence-community-back-to-back-u-s-presidential-election-interference-champs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">as described by the bombshell Durham Report</a>, RFK Jr. is sounding the alarm for all Americans — regardless of party — who care about actual democratic values and the danger of having a non-existent press to hold the government accountable.
&#8220;This is no partisan skirmish,&#8221; Kennedy tweeted. &#8220;It is about the political weaponization of the FBI to destroy a candidate and then a sitting President. It’s about a matrix of lies so elaborate as to make a mockery of the democratic ideal of an informed citizenry.&#8221; 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Following <a href="https://twitter.com/mtaibbi?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@mtaibbi</a>’s terrific reporting on the Durham investigation. This is no partisan skirmish. It is about the political weaponization of the FBI to destroy a candidate and then a sitting President. It’s about a matrix of lies so elaborate as to make a mockery of the…
&mdash; Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) <a href="https://twitter.com/RobertKennedyJr/status/1660633920717611009?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 22, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
As has now been extensively covered, Durham&#8217;s report stated that the U.S. federal government had no grounds to open an investigation into then-candidate Donald Trump&#8217;s 2016 presidential campaign and that the Russia investigation never should have happened. In short, it was founded on baseless evidence and smears, seemingly used to thwart and tarnish Trump.
The federal government&#8217;s alleged willingness, and arguable success, to erode the U.S. Constitution and trample on well-established norms could not have been made possible without a lapdog media letting them do it.
Kennedy called out the louts in the legacy newsrooms as well.
&#8220;Maybe most alarming of all, the Durham investigation reveals the abject complicity of the mainstream press, which has yet to admit they were taken in by the big lie, propagated it, and now continues to permit those lies to stand as truth,&#8221; Kennedy added.
Indeed, papers such as The Washington Post received Pulitizers for their reporting. Now that it has all been exposed as the scam it is — will such outlets return their prizes for fake news?
It seems doubtful.
But, as pointed out by Kennedy, the government&#8217;s untoward relationship with the media, and vice versa, isn&#8217;t necessarily new.
Similarly, cable news and traditional media were all too happy to regurgitate the lies that made the Iraq War possible, according to the son of the late-U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy.
&#8220;Further commentary by @ChrisLynnHedges clearly illustrates the similarities between this media convergence on two mendacious mythologies: Russiagate and the Iraq weapons of mass destruction lies, lies, and more lies.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Further commentary by <a href="https://twitter.com/ChrisLynnHedges?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ChrisLynnHedges</a> clearly illustrates the similarities between this media convergence on two mendacious mythologies: Russiagate and the Iraq weapons of mass destruction lies, lies, and more lies.<a href="https://t.co/a37repn2Hj">https://t.co/a37repn2Hj</a>
&mdash; Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) <a href="https://twitter.com/RobertKennedyJr/status/1660634279007727617?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 22, 2023</a></blockquote>
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RFK Jr.&#8217;s Russiagate commentary isn&#8217;t the only time that he has shown a willingness to call out Swamp creatures and those who aid and abet them. RFK Jr. stands at odds with the Democratic Party on topics like Ukraine, COVID, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/surging-democrat-presidential-candidate-rfk-jr-takes-surprising-stance-on-trans-athletes" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&#8220;transgender-identifying&#8221; men in women&#8217;s sports</a>, as well as the unholy marriage of Big Government in bed with Big Business.
It&#8217;s no wonder the Left and their media allies hate the guy.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Robert F Kennedy, Jr.

‘A Matrix Of Lies’; RFK, Jr. Blasts The FBI’s ‘Mockery’ Of Democracy To ‘Destroy’ A Presidential Candidate

‘A Matrix Of Lies’; RFK, Jr. Blasts The FBI's ‘Mockery’ Of Democracy To ‘Destroy’ A Presidential Candidate

2024 Election

Democratic Party

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Special counsel <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/john-durham" target="_blank" rel="noopener">John Durham</a>&#8216;s long-awaited report serves as a guide for how Congress can further investigate the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/durham-finds-researcher-felt-threatened-by-schiff-staffer" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Russiagate controversy</a>, according to a top GOP lawmaker.
During an appearance Sunday on Fox News, House Judiciary Chairman <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/jim-jordan" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jim Jordan</a> (R-OH) spoke about ways in which he might pick up on investigative leads from Durham&#8217;s report, which heavily criticized the FBI&#8217;s probe into alleged links between <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/donald-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a>&#8216;s 2016 campaign and Russia.
&#8220;We&#8217;re going to talk with our lawyers,&#8221; Jordan <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ic5D1dkCR1Q" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told &#8220;Sunday Morning Futures&#8221;</a> anchor Maria Bartiromo. He also said there would be <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/mccarthy-expects-fbi-to-share-file-on-biden-bribery-allegations" target="_blank" rel="noopener">talks with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy</a> (R-CA) on &#8220;where to proceed from here.&#8221;
&#8220;Are there people that were highlighted in the Durham investigation and the Durham report that we need to talk to on the Judiciary Committee? We&#8217;re going to give that a good, hard look,&#8221; Jordan said.
&#8220;Nothing is off the table,&#8221; he added, &#8220;because it is critical the American people understand how their government — their agencies — have been turned on them, the taxpayer, and we get all the facts out there.&#8221;
The chairman was responding to a question about whether he wants to see another investigation into former President Bill Clinton and his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12098863/FBI-shut-FOUR-investigations-Hillary-Bill-Clinton-2016-Durham-report-reveals.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">after it was reported</a> that Durham found the FBI dropped multiple inquiries related the couple and their non-profit organization in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election in which Hillary Clinton was the Democratic nominee.
Jordan is already making moves after the Department of Justice (DOJ) released Durham&#8217;s report last week. He <a href="https://twitter.com/JudiciaryGOP/status/1658224663539990533" target="_blank" rel="noopener">invited</a> the special counsel to testify before the Judiciary Committee, which has jurisdiction in the matter.
Though Jordan did not divulge to Bartiromo on-air whether Durham has agreed to make such an appearance, he said the special counsel&#8217;s report showed &#8220;the FBI had no probable cause, no predicate, no evidence whatsoever, and yet they launch into an investigation of President Trump and his campaign.&#8221;
Armed with other concerns about the FBI, including new revelations about the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/05/19/fbi-digital-surveillance-misuse-jan6-blm/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">bureau&#8217;s misuse of surveillance tools</a> and whistleblower allegations of &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fbi-whistleblowers-detail-egregious-abuse-retribution-from-politicized-bureau-house-report-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener">political rot</a>&#8221; within the law enforcement agency, Jordan said lawmakers are considering ways to rein in the FBI.
The chairman listed two areas of focus: Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) reforms and the appropriations process.
&#8220;We have to exercise our authority, the power of the purse, to limit what the federal government — what the FBI and the Justice Department are doing to the American people,&#8221; Jordan said.

‘Nothing Is Off The Table’: Jim Jordan Outlines Response To Durham Report

'Nothing is off the table': Jim Jordan Outlines Response To Durham Report

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>
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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

Crossfire Hurricane

Readers Pass

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

A university researcher felt threatened when pressed by a staffer to Rep. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/adam-schiff" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Adam Schiff</a> (D-CA) and a Democrat senator seeking help to suss out alleged links between former President <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/donald-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a> and Russia, special counsel <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/john-durham" target="_blank" rel="noopener">John Durham</a> revealed this week.
According to Durham&#8217;s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/durham-report-makes-sobering-findings-about-fbis-handling-of-trump-russia-probe" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a>, which the Justice Department <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-john-durhams-years-long-investigation-into-trump-russia-collusion-investigators-is-over" target="_blank" rel="noopener">released on Monday</a>, the researcher recalled traveling to Capitol Hill with a colleague in November 2018 to discuss a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) cybersecurity program with Senate Armed Services Committee staffers. Afterward, the pair agreed to talk with staffers of the House Permanent Select Committee On Intelligence (HPSCI) after a staffer for Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), then the ranking member of the armed services panel, mentioned their interest in meeting.
In a &#8220;secure&#8221; room, a HPSCI staff member presented a news article about &#8220;Trump, Russia, and Alfa Bank,&#8221; the researcher recounted. This article appears to have focused on internet data that <a href="https://twitter.com/ChuckRossDC/status/1330913065609670658" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hillary Clinton&#8217;s 2016 presidential campaign</a> used to fuel speculation about an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/should-be-held-fully-accountable-republicans-hammer-clinton-for-peddling-false-russia-collusion-claims" target="_blank" rel="noopener">unfounded secret backchannel</a> between the Trump Organization and Russia’s Alfa Bank.
The HPSCI staffers said they wanted the university&#8217;s help looking into the matter, but the researcher told Durham&#8217;s team that he responded by saying it would be inappropriate for a public university — which in this case <a href="https://freebeacon.com/democrats/schiff-aide-threatened-researchers-who-refused-to-investigate" target="_blank" rel="noopener">appears to be Georgia Tech University</a> — to do that and he suggested they contact DARPA. That&#8217;s when the Reed staffer said, &#8220;We are now in charge,&#8221; and &#8220;one of the HPSCI staffers said that their boss (Congressman Adam Schiff) would soon take over&#8221; HPSCI leadership, per the report. The researcher, identified as &#8220;University-I Researcher-3,&#8221; &#8220;took the comment as a mild threat,&#8221; Durham&#8217;s report added.
Durham wrote that his team &#8220;considered&#8221; whether these activities might be relevant to a prosecution for contract fraud or abuse of government resources. The Daily Wire reached out to Schiff&#8217;s and Reed&#8217;s offices for comment.
The researcher said he &#8220;dragged&#8221; his colleague out of the meeting and offered a warning. &#8220;Don&#8217;t touch this with a ten foot pole, stay away from this,&#8221; the researcher recalled saying. But, as it turned out, the second researcher had been part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/this-is-bigger-than-watergate-everything-we-know-about-the-clinton-spying-operation-against-donald-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">an effort to mine internet data</a> to conduct opposition research attempting to link Trump to Russia, the special counsel&#8217;s report noted. Alleged details about this effort, linked to tech executive Rodney Joffe, were laid bare during Durham&#8217;s prosecution of former Clinton campaign Michael Sussmann, who was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-jury-clears-former-clinton-attorney-michael-sussmann-of-lying-to-fbi" target="_blank" rel="noopener">acquitted last year by a D.C. jury</a> on a charge of lying to the FBI.
The first researcher told Durham&#8217;s team he did not recall his colleague mentioning the work he had already done at the university regarding the Alfa Bank allegations. The first researcher also told Durham&#8217;s team that he informed a DARPA program manager of the request from the HPSCI staffers, including &#8220;his objections to the nature of the request.&#8221;
The report says when the DARPA manager spoke with Durham&#8217;s team he &#8220;denied learning of the Alfa Bank allegations other than through media reports&#8221; and &#8220;maintained that he was unaware of any role that University-I personnel played in the Alfa Bank allegations.&#8221;
The special counsel made a number of referrals, including one to the Defense Department&#8217;s inspector general involving a matter that &#8220;involved the execution of a contract between DARPA and the Georgia Institute of Technology,&#8221; Durham&#8217;s report said.
At the time of the meeting, as reported by Durham, Schiff would have still been the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee. He later became chairman, a perch from which he often insisted there was evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. After Republicans won control of the House in 2022, Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/mccarthy-formally-kicks-schiff-and-swalwell-from-house-intel-integrity-matters-more" target="_blank" rel="noopener">booted Schiff from the panel</a> over accusations that Schiff lied about investigations related to Trump. Schiff is now running for Senate.
In response to Durham&#8217;s report, which heavily criticized the FBI&#8217;s Trump-Russia probe, Schiff has defended the bureau&#8217;s work and argued the special counsel&#8217;s inquiry was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/flawed-from-the-start-adam-schiff-doubles-down-says-durham-investigation-was-political" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&#8220;flawed&#8221; from the start.</a>

Rep. Adam Schiff

Durham Finds Researcher Felt Threatened By Schiff Staffer

Adam Schiff

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:
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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

Russia

Former U.S. Attorney General <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/william-barr" target="_blank" rel="noopener">William Barr</a> said during an interview this week that special counsel John Durham&#8217;s report on the origins of the FBI&#8217;s investigation into former President Donald Trump &#8220;vindicated&#8221; the former president and that Trump was right from the beginning about what the Left was trying to do to him.
Durham&#8217;s 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.
Barr told Fox News anchor Bret Baier on Tuesday evening that Durham&#8217;s report was a &#8220;success&#8221; because it got to the bottom of what happened and exposed issues that have led to changes at the DOJ and FBI, even though more changes are needed.
Barr said Hillary Clinton&#8217;s campaign, the media, and the FBI were the primary culprits behind the lies that drove the conspiracy theory for years and led to multiple investigations that cost tens of millions of dollars.
&#8220;Let&#8217;s not forget what the lie was. The lie was Russiagate,&#8221; Barr said. &#8220;The lie was, there was collusion. There was nothing to support it.&#8221;
Barr said if what the Left did was not a witch-hunt, then it was &#8220;a damn good imitation of one.&#8221;
&#8220;This is one of the greatest injustices done to a presidential candidate and a president. And he was treated unfairly here,&#8221; Barr said. &#8220;So, he is vindicated as far as Russiagate is concerned.&#8221;
Barr said that while he has his differences with the former president, he believes that &#8220;he had great policies, that he deserved a lot of credit for what he accomplished, and this was a grave injustice.&#8221;
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&#8220;And the fact that he was able to accomplish a lot in the face of it, I think was a great achievement,&#8221; Barr said. &#8220;I have other problems. I&#8217;m not supporting him for renomination, but he was right on this. And this is a vindication. He had it right from the beginning.&#8221;
Several minutes later, Barr was asked again about the 2024 Republican Party primary for president and his thoughts about the former president.
Barr said that he believes the Durham report is going to help Trump in the short term, but that he believes Trump &#8220;will not win the nomination.&#8221;
&#8220;And I have nothing personal against him, and there&#8217;s no &#8212; I have no antipathy toward him at all,&#8221; Barr said. &#8220;But I just don&#8217;t think he&#8217;s the right leader for the Republican Party going forward. I think people who want to restore America should look for a big victory that brings strength into the Congress and allows us to achieve some fundamental changes. And I don&#8217;t think he&#8217;s capable of delivering that kind of victory.&#8221;
Barr said that he believes Trump has the best chance of losing to Biden of any of the Republicans running or who are likely to run, and that his concern is &#8220;even if he won,” Trump &#8220;would wipe out Republicans in the Congress because of the vast turnout that would occur just to vote against him.&#8221;

Bill Barr

Bill Barr: Durham Report ‘Vindicated’ Trump, But He’s Still Not The Right Person To Lead GOP Forward

Elections

William Barr

Daily Wire editor emeritus <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/ben-shapiro" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ben Shapiro</a> on Tuesday said that the Durham report released the day prior detailed “one of the most shocking scandals in the history of American law enforcement.”
The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/department-of-justice" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Department of Justice</a> released a 306-page report on former special counsel <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/john-durham" target="_blank" rel="noopener">John Durham</a>’s investigations into the origins of the Russian collusion hoax on Monday. Durham’s report detailed “sobering” misconduct and corruption at the Department of Justice that involved Democratic officials and politicians.
“For years, Donald Trump had suggested that the FBI was out to get him, that they had colluded with the Clinton campaign, they’d colluded with the Obama administration, that the deep state had basically subverted his presidency. He said that it was the greatest scandal in American history, and it appears he was right,” Shapiro said at the top of his <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1728-bombshell-report-reveals-the-most-shocking-political-scandal-in-american-history7" target="_blank" rel="noopener">show</a>.
Crossfire Hurricane began “during the [2016] presidential election season based on raw, unanalyzed, and uncorroborated intelligence,” Durham wrote. FBI officials, some with stated bias against Trump, used Clinton campaign-funded disinformation in the form of the Steele dossier and other falsified evidence to justify a probe into Trump that lasted years into his presidency.
“It is absolutely shocking. It is damning. It is apparent that everyone in the FBI knew that this investigation was bull crap right up front,” Shapiro said. “It was very clear the Clinton campaign was using the FBI to launder into public view and into law enforcement a bunch of bad allegations. It was clear that upper echelons of the Obama administration knew all of this was happening.”
“The Obama administration and the FBI were fully aware of the Clinton campaign plan to plant all this information, and they went ahead with it anyway,” Shapiro said, referring to a briefing that then-CIA Director John Brennan gave to then-President Obama, then-FBI Director James Comey, and other top officials in 2016. The focus of Brennan’s briefing was to alert top Obama administration officials that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, then a candidate for president, had allegedly approved a campaign effort to link Trump to Russia to damage his candidacy.
“Did the Obama administration step in and [tell the FBI,] ‘Hey, hold up, got to abide by the law here. The FBI and DOJ cannot launch investigations into the rival of our former secretary of state, especially now that we know that she’s attempting to get us to launch an investigation into her rival?’” Shapiro asked rhetorically. “Nope, they just went ahead with it. They just went ahead. This is insane.”
Shapiro emphasized the FBI’s central role in what the Durham report characterized as a failure of the bureau to adhere to its “guiding principles” of “Fidelity, Bravery and Integrity.” The central problem at the bureau, according to Durham, is that the officials involved lacked integrity, not training, oversight, or processes.
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Shapiro said the FBI’s conduct was “astonishing and frightening.”
“It is absolute madness to suggest that you should be able to open an investigation on this basis,” Shapiro said. “How exactly would that even work? And the answer is, of course, well, if you have agents and the agents have power, they can do whatever the hell they want.”
The Daily Wire host did take issue with some of Durham’s report. Durham did not recommend any further criminal action be taken against those involved in the scheme to undermine Trump’s campaign and presidency. Shapiro said that not acting against those accountable only encouraged something similar to happen again.
“The fact is the FBI and the DOJ would be a lot better off right now if they actually went and prosecuted some of these people, put some heads on spikes, and showed people that they were never going to let the FBI do this again,” Shapiro said.

Ben Shapiro Dissects Durham’s Report: ‘Absolute Madness,’ DOJ Needs To ‘Put Some Heads On Pikes’

Department of Justice

General

The FBI&#8217;s Operation Crossfire Hurricane was tasked with investigating Russian involvement in the 2016 election, yet a major memo sent from the CIA to lead agent Peter Strzok outlining U.S. intelligence that Hillary Clinton may have hatched a plan to frame Donald Trump — which stood to dramatically alter the investigation — simply went missing, according to the blockbuster report from Special Counsel John Durham.
“In late July 2016, U.S. intelligence agencies obtained insight into Russian intelligence analysis alleging that U.S Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton had approved a campaign plan to stir up a scandal against U.S. Presidential candidate Donald Trump by tying him to Putin and the Russians&#8217; hacking of the Democratic National Committee,” the <a href="https://www.justice.gov/storage/durhamreport.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> said.
On September 7, 2016, the CIA wrote a “referral memo” addressed to FBI director James Comey and to the attention of Deputy Assistant Director Strzok saying as much. The information was considered so important that then-CIA Director James Brennan immediately briefed President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, and Comey about it in the Situation Room. Yet not a single FBI employee working for Strzok who was interviewed by Durham could recall seeing it or doing anything with the information.
While the Russian intelligence that was intercepted could have been an “exaggeration or fabrication,” it would have rung true to the FBI agents because they suspected, correctly, that the sources that were feeding them the anti-Trump narrative were being paid by the Clinton campaign or DNC, and caused them to proceed more skeptically.
Some agents expressed &#8220;surprise and dismay&#8221; to learn from Durham that the FBI had received this intelligence but bosses had seemingly concealed it from them. “For example, the original Supervisory Special Agent on the Crossfire Hurricane investigation, Supervisory Special Agent-1, reviewed the intelligence during one of his interviews with the Office. After reading it, Supervisory Special Agent-I became visibly upset and emotional, left the interview room with his counsel, and subsequently returned to state emphatically that he had never been apprised of the Clinton Plan intelligence and had never seen the aforementioned Referral Memo. Supervisory Special Agent-1 expressed a sense of betrayal that no one had informed him of the intelligence,” Durham wrote.
Clinton’s campaign paid the law firm Perkins Coie, which in turn paid Fusion GPS, which paid dossier author Christopher Steele. Perkins Coie lawyer Michael Sussman also fed the FBI “white papers” pushing the idea that Trump was involved in a conspiracy with Russia, and billed the Clinton campaign for it, the report said.
The idea that Steele was working on a plot for Clinton — rather than being simply a retired British intelligence agent — would have answered nagging questions the investigators had, such as one&#8217;s reservation that “what was strange was that [British Intelligence Services] don’t seem to want to deal with the guy.&#8221; Another agent assigned to handle Steele said his initial reaction was “disbelief.”
Crossfire Hurricane agents regularly found themselves flummoxed by why they were being pushed aggressively by leadership brass to investigate something that seemed so weak. The agent who became &#8220;visibly upset&#8221; also said he had “felt like a fool” while investigating “dry holes,” but assumed that “somebody above them” knew of some solid evidence that he did not that guided their decision-making.
He said a colleague felt similarly and would regularly ask, “what are we even doing here?” That colleague told Deputy Assistant Director Jennifer Boone that he did not think there was justification for surveilling Trump aide Carter Page, but “he was largely ignored and directed to continue.”
After analysts determined that the case into wrongdoing by Trump associates was weak, a top FBI official gave the order that nothing should be put in writing on the case, the report said.
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&#8220;A meeting was then held with Assistant Director Priestap and others. During that meeting, the review team was told to be careful about what they were writing down because issues relating to Steele were under intense scrutiny. Two weeks later, the Deputy Assistant Director for Counterintelligence, Dina Corsi, met with the review team and directed them not to document any recommendations, context, or analysis in the memorandum they were preparing. The instructions, which Headquarters Analyst-3 described as &#8216;highly unusual,&#8217; concerned the team because analysis is what analysts do,&#8221; the report said.
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An FBI attorney “remembered being shocked by the directive from Corsi. OGC Attorney-I&#8217;s recollection was that Corsi was speaking for FBI leadership, but that she did not say exactly who provided the directive. OGC Attorney-I advised the Office that what Corsi said was not right in any circumstance, and it was the most inappropriate operational or professional statement he had ever heard at the FBI. OGC Attorney-I stated that the directive from Corsi was &#8216;really, really shocking&#8217; to him and that he was &#8216;appalled&#8217; by it.&#8221;
The Steele dossier itself also went missing for 75 days between when it was received in London and when the dossier made its way to Crossfire Hurricane investigators, Durham wrote. Instead of using that time to validate its authenticity, it was dropped on their lap and they were told to quickly use it to get spy warrants, the report said. No one could explain the delay.
Not a single element of the dossier could ultimately be corroborated by its primary subsource, Igor Danchenko. Yet even as the FBI spent thousands of hours chasing rabbit holes of dubious leads and tangentially related interviews, it made no effort to interview some of the people who could have quickly gotten to the bottom of it, Durham wrote.
That includes Christopher Dolan, a prominent Democrat whose name made Danchenko and others visibly nervous, and who was likely a dossier source. It also includes George Papadapolous, whose vague comment in a London bar was used to open a full investigation instead of simply asking him what he meant, as British intelligence urged the FBI to do.
The FBI also refused to interview Carter Page despite his offer, it said.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fbi-offered-to-pay-steele-1m-for-anti-trump-evidence-paid-possible-russian-spy-despite-knowing-his-info-was-bad">FBI Offered To Pay Steele $1M For Anti-Trump Evidence, Paid Possible Russian Spy Despite Knowing His Info Was Bad</a>

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