The FBI should have done more to review Russian intelligence analysis suggesting that 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton personally endorsed a plan to ‘defame’ her opponent Donald Trump by alleging foreign interference in foreign affairs. elections, according to the Durham report.
Special Counsel John Durham’s findings, released Monday, represent the long-awaited conclusion of an investigation that Trump and his allies say would show massive wrongdoing by law enforcement.
Durham concluded that the allegations about Clinton’s attempts to smear Trump received less scrutiny than the allegations about his opponent, even though they were serious enough to be passed on to President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.
Durham admitted the claims were neither corroborated nor verified, but compared them to the now-discredited Steele dossier outlining Trump’s ties to Moscow, which served as the basis for other investigations.
‘For example, [an FBI intelligence analyst] said he did not recall anything the FBI did to analyze, or otherwise consider the Clinton plan intelligence, stating it was “just a data point,” he said. he concluded.
US intelligence obtained a Russian analysis suggesting that 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton personally approved a plan to “defame” her opponent Donald Trump, according to the Durham report released on Monday.
The CIA deemed the information important enough for President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and other senior officials to know about in the summer of 2016.
“This contrasts sharply with his substantial reliance on unsubstantiated Steele reports, which at least some FBI members seemed to know were likely funded or promoted by the Clinton campaign.”
Durham was assigned to investigate based on the investigations into Trump and his campaign.
The roughly 300-page report lists what Durham said were FBI and Justice Department missteps as investigators embarked on a potentially explosive probe into the 2016 election to determine whether the Trump campaign colluded with Moscow. .
He criticized the FBI for launching a full-fledged investigation based on “crude, unanalyzed and unsubstantiated intelligence”.
In contrast, the report suggested that information damaging to Clinton was going nowhere.
“In late July 2016, US intelligence agencies gained insight into Russian intelligence analysis alleging that US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton had endorsed a campaign aimed at stoking a scandal against US presidential candidate Donald Trump by linking him to Putin. and the hacking of the Democratic Party by the Russians National Committee.
‘THE [Intelligence Community] does not know the accuracy of this allegation or the extent to which Russian intelligence analysis may reflect exaggeration or fabrication.
He goes on to describe how CIA Director John Brennan briefed Obama and his senior national security officials on intelligence, including Hillary Clinton’s “purported endorsement on July 26, 2016 of a proposal by one of his foreign policy advisers aiming to defame Donald Trump”. by stirring up a scandal denouncing the interference of the Russian security services.
Special Counsel John Durham released his highly anticipated report on Monday. He said the FBI investigation into Hurricane Crossfire should have looked at Clinton’s intelligence
Special Counsel John Durham was appointed in 2019 by then-Attorney General Bill Barr to investigate misconduct related to the Crossfire Hurricane investigation.
An “investigative reference” was then sent to FBI Director James Comey and Assistant Deputy Director of Counterintelligence Peter Strzok.
It was relevant information, Durham said, because it was part of a “mosaic of information” that the Steele dossier and other allegations were part of an anti-Trump smear campaign.
His office discovered that details of the intelligence had been released to key figures in the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane team – the code name for the investigation into Trump’s alleged ties to Moscow – in an August 22 email. . However, “the bureau did not identify any response.” or follow-up action taken’ in response.
Durham also said that FBI personnel who agreed to be interviewed did not recall receiving the dismissal memo or that it triggered any action.
Durham said it was a “rather startling and inexplicable failure” to incorporate what he called “Clinton Plan intelligence” into the FBI investigation.
Crossfire Hurricane investigators also said they were unaware of the information.
Durham said the inclusion of what he called “Clinton Plan intelligence” in the FBI investigation was a “rather surprising and inexplicable failure.”
“CIA Director John Brennan and other intelligence officials recognized the importance of intelligence by promptly briefing ‘Obama and other key figures,’ he continued.
“Whether or not the Clinton Plan intelligence was based on reliable or unreliable information, or whether it was ultimately true or false, it should have prompted FBI personnel to immediately undertake an analysis of the information and to act with much greater care and caution in receiving, analyzing, and relying on partisan material,” such as the Steele dossier and other allegations.
But that failure did not rise to the level of provable criminal acts, he added.
The report said investigators repeatedly relied on “confirmation bias,” ignoring or rationalizing evidence that undermined their premise of a Trump-Russia conspiracy as they pushed the investigation.
House GOP Chairwoman Elise Stefanik blasted the report, calling it a “criminal abuse of power” by then-incumbent President Obama.
“This criminal abuse of power has gone all the way to the Oval Office where President Obama and then Vice President Joe Biden was in the game from the very beginning. This was an illegal attempt by the politicized FBI and DOJ to interfere in our elections,’ she said in a statement to DailyMail.com.