Testifying at a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday, former Special Counsel John Durham refuted Democrats’ personal attacks and detailed how the Justice Department and FBI never should have launched the Trump-Russia investigation.
Durham testified after an opening statement by Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), who smeared Durham’s reputation and repeated debunked Democrat claims denying the Clinton Campaign’s use of the Steele Dossier, dismissing the existence of Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop as “Russian Disinformation,” and exonerating the FBI regarding its Trump-Russia investigation.
“We found troubling violations of law and policy in the conduct of highly-consequential investigations directed at members of a presidential campaign and, ultimately, a presidential administration,” Durham testified, spelling out some of the FBI’s mot “serious” and “sobering” violations:
- “We charged a former FBI agent who pleaded guilty to the felony offense of altering and fabricating a portion of a document used to obtain a court order, a FISA order, of surveillance of a United States citizen, which in our view is a significant problem. “
- “Several of the relevant FISA applications issued in the Crossfire investigation omitted references to what was clearly relevant and highly exculpatory information that should have been disclosed to the FISA court.”
- “Multiple FBI personnel who signed, or assisted in preparing, renewal applications for that same FISA warrant, acknowledged that they did not believe that the target, Mr. [Carter] Page, was a threat to national security, much less a knowing agent of a foreign power – which is what the law requires.”
- “It appears, from our investigation, that the FBI leadership dismissed those concerns.”
- “[T]he FBI’s failure to sufficiently scrutinize the information it received, or to apply the same standards to allegations it received about the Clinton and Trump campaigns.”
- “The FBI was too willing to accept and use politically-funded and uncorroborated opposition research, such as the Steele Dossier.”
- “The FBI relied on the Dossier and FISA applications, knowing there was likely material originating from a political campaign, a political opponent.”
- “It did so even after the president of the United States, the FBI and CIA directors and others received briefings about intelligence suggesting that there was a Clinton Campaign plan underway to stir up a scandal tying Trump to Russia.”
- “The FBI failed to analyze, or even assess, the implications of the intelligence in any meaningful way.”
- “When the FBI and special agent Mueller’s office learned that Steele’s primary sub-source likely had gathered important portions of the dossier information during travels to Russia with one Charles Dolan, it inexplicably decided not to interview Dolan or investigate his activities.”