Prosecutor ends FBI Trump-Russia probe with harsh criticism, but no new charges

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WASHINGTON (AP) A special prosecutor ended his four-year investigation into possible misconduct by the FBI in its investigation into ties between Russia and Donald Trumps 2016 campaign with withering criticism of the bureau but a small that court record fell short of the predictions of former presidents. he discovers the crime of the century.

Monday’s report from special counsel John Durham represents the long-awaited conclusion of an investigation that Trump and allies say will expose massive wrongdoing by law enforcement and intelligence officials. Instead, the Durhams’ investigation delivered poor results, with prosecutors getting a guilty plea from a little-known FBI employee but losing the only two criminal cases they took to trial.

The roughly 300-page report catalogs what Durham says was a series of missteps by the FBI and Justice Department as investigators conducted a politically explosive probe in the heat of the 2016 election into whether the Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia to dictate the outcome. It criticized the FBI for opening a full investigation based on raw, unreviewed and unconfirmed intelligence, saying the speed with which it was done was a departure from the norm. And it said investigators repeatedly relied on confirmation bias, ignoring or dismissing evidence that undermined their premise of a Trump-Russia collusion as they pushed the investigation forward.

Again, the FBI’s failure to critically analyze information that contradicts the narrative of a collusive Trump/Russia relationship presented throughout the Crossfire Hurricane is deeply troubling, the report said. Crossfire Hurricane is the FBI code name for its investigation.

The impact of Durhams report, while strongly critical of the FBI, was likely blunted by Durhams spotty prosecution record and the fact that many of the seven-year-old episodes it cited had already been reviewed in depth by the Justice Department inspector general. . The FBI has also long since announced dozens of corrective actions. Still, the Durhams’ findings are likely to bolster the FBI’s investigation at a time when Trump is once again seeking the White House as well as offering fresh fodder for congressional Republicans who have launched their own probe into the alleged weapon of the FBI and Justice Department.

The FBI released a letter to Durham outlining the changes it made, including steps to ensure the accuracy of secret surveillance applications to eavesdrop on suspected terrorists and spies. It also emphasized that the report focused on previous leadership.

If those reforms had been implemented in 2016, the missteps identified in the report would have been avoided. This report reinforces the importance of ensuring that the FBI continues to do its work with the rigor, impartiality, and professionalism that the American people deserve and rightly expect, the FBI said in a statement.

Durham, the former US Attorney in Connecticut, was appointed in 2019 by Trumps attorney general, William Barr, soon after special counsel Robert Mueller completed his investigation into whether Trump’s 2016 campaign colluded with Russia to shift the election result in his favor.

The Mueller investigation resulted in about three dozen criminal charges, including convictions of half a dozen Trump associates, and concluded that Russia intervened on behalf of the Trump campaign and that the campaign accepted aid. But Muellers team never found that they actually conspired to sway the election, creating an opening for critics of the investigation including Barr himself to complain that it was launched without proper grounds.

The original Russia investigation was opened in July 2016 after the FBI learned from an Australian diplomat that a Trump campaign associate named George Papadopoulos claimed to know Russian dirt on Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in the form of of hacked emails.

But revelations in the months that followed revealed flaws in the investigation, including errors and omissions in the Justice Department’s applications to eavesdrop on a former Trump campaign aide, Carter Page, as well as the confidence of FBI in a dossier of unconfirmed or discredited information compiled. by a British ex-spy, Christopher Steele.

Durham’s team delved deeply into those errors, finding that investigators failed to substantiate a single key allegation in the so-called Steele dossier and ignored or justified what it claimed was exculpatory information provided. of Trump associates to confidential FBI informants.

The Durhams’ mandate was to review government decisions, and identify possible misconduct, in the early days of the Trump-Russia investigation. His appointment was applauded by Trump, who in a 2019 interview on Fox News said Durham should be the brightest and the best. He and his supporters hope it will expose a deep state conspiracy within the top echelons of the FBI and other agencies to derail Trumps presidency and candidacy.

Durham and his team cast a wide net, interviewing top officials at the FBI, Justice Department and CIA. In his first year on the job, he traveled with Barr to Italy to meet with government officials while Trump himself asked Australia’s prime minister and other leaders to help with the investigation. Weeks before his December 2020 resignation as attorney general, Barr appointed Durham as a Justice Department special counsel to ensure he continues his work in a Democratic administration.

The slow pace of the investigation has angered Trump, who grilled Barr before he left office about the whereabouts of a report that won’t be released for years. At the end of the Trump administration, only one criminal case was brought, while the sudden departure of the Durhams’ top representative in the final months of Trump’s tenure raised questions about whether the team was in sync.

Despite expectations that Durham might prosecute high-ranking government officials, his team produced only three prosecutions. A former FBI attorney has pleaded guilty to altering an email the FBI trusted in an application to eavesdrop on a former Trump campaign aide. Two other defendants, a lawyer for the Clinton campaign and a Russian-American think tank analyst, were both acquitted of charges of lying to the FBI.

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Follow Eric Tucker at http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP

Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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