Former President Trump took to his Truth Social account minutes after John Durham, the Trump-appointed special counsel, released his report on the origins of the FBI’s investigation into suspected ties between Russia and Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign.
Trump wrote, “WOW!” He also said the FBI had scammed the American people.
Trump said that based on extensive inquiry, Special Counsel John Durham has concluded that the FBI should never have opened the Trump-Russia probe. In other words, the American people were exploited, just as they are being used now by those who oppose America’s rise to greatness.
Durham concluded that there was no need for the FBI to look into whether or not the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election.
Trump’s attorney general, Bill Barr, appointed him to his position. His assessment, which runs to over 300 pages, allegedly levies criticism after criticism of how the FBI handled the Trump-Russia probe and claimed that the Bureau failed to uphold the critical mission of strict adherence to the law.
Despite this, Durham did not advocate for changes to the DOJ’s or the FBI’s stances.
Investigators failed to adequately consider alternative hypotheses and acted without appropriate objectivity or restraint in pursuing allegations of collusion or conspiracy.
The FBI and the DOJ should recognize that their confirmation bias, lack of analysis, and eagerness to trust info from political opponents caused investigators not to consider any alternative hypotheses.
Many Republicans have taken to social media to claim that Trump has been “exonerated” and that he was targeted by a “weaponized” Justice Department and FBI.
The Intercept referred to Durham as “Trump’s answer to Robert Mueller,” claiming that Durham has used the criminal justice system to score political points, not to search for the truth.
The investigation did not find any evidence of a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia, according to Attorney General Barr’s summary of the findings included in the 2019 Mueller report. According to the report, Mueller did not determine whether or not Trump obstructed justice.
