The Federal Bureau of Investigation offered a brief response to the accusations made in the final Durham Report released on Monday, and former President Donald Trump issued a scathing response.
The highly anticipated report said that the FBI had sought to open an investigation into allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign in 2016 and the Russian government without proper evidence to support the probe.
The FBI responded by claiming it had already addressed many of the issues brought up by the report.
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. 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.
Trump offered a far more fiery response to Fox News Digital about the report.
“I, and much more importantly, then American public have been victims of this long-running and treasonous charade started by the Democrats — started by Comey,” said Trump, referring to former FBI Director James Comey.
“There must be a heavy price to pay for putting our country through this,” he added.
He went on to say that the activities around the Russian collusion probe were a “total disgrace” and promised to have far more to say about it in the future.
“This report took a long time because John Durham is a very thorough investigator,” Trump continued. “But the result is unequivocal and an absolute disaster in terms of justice.”
He also claimed that “public anger over this report is at a level that I have not seen before.”
Durham said that the FBI applied a higher standard of scrutiny against the Trump campaign in 2016 than it did to similar accusations against the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton. He also derided the use of the infamous Steele dossier to bolster the argument for an investigation despite the dubious claims and sources for the document.
CNN’s Jake Tapper said that the report was “devastating” to the FBI and added that it exonerated Trump “to a degree.”
Here’s more about the Durham Report:
Special counsel John Durham’s report on Trump-Russia probe releasedwww.youtube.com
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