FBI’s flawed Trump-Russia probe lacked evidence, says independent prosecutor
The long-awaited report on the origins of the FBI’s investigation into alleged collusion between Russia and Donald Trump‘s 2016 presidential campaign has been released, revealing serious flaws and a lack of substantial evidence.
Independent US prosecutor John Durham, who was appointed in 2019, conducted the investigation and produced a more than 300-page report that criticised the FBI’s “Crossfire Hurricane” probe.
According to the report, neither US law enforcement nor the Intelligence Community had any actual evidence of collusion at the start of the investigation.
Durham also highlighted a double standard in how the FBI and Justice Department investigated Trump and his 2016 rival, Democrat Hillary Clinton. He noted that senior FBI personnel displayed a serious lack of analytical rigour towards the information they received, particularly from politically-affiliated sources.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump welcomed the Durham report, stating that the American public was “scammed” by the FBI’s probe. The FBI responded by saying that the current leadership has implemented dozens of corrective actions, which could have prevented the missteps identified in the report if they had been in place in 2016.
Durham’s investigation focused on the origins of Crossfire Hurricane, launched in July 2016, and special counsel Robert Mueller’s subsequent investigation initiated in May 2017.
Both investigations examined Russian hacking and social media manipulation in favour of Trump in 2016, as well as multiple contacts between the Trump campaign and Russians. While Mueller’s probe resulted in convictions of six Trump campaign members and indictments of 25 Russians, it found no evidence of criminal cooperation with Russia by the Trump campaign, reported Bangkok Post.
