FBI should never have investigated Trump – report

John Durham has concluded that the US Justice Department and FBI failed to uphold their mission when they launched the so-called ‘Russiagate’ investigation into former president Donald Trump. In a 300-page document released on Monday, Durham condemned the FBI for treating incriminating information on Trump with a “serious lack of analytical rigor”, especially information received from politically-affiliated persons and entities. The Steele Dossier, a compilation of bogus rumors about the former president and his alleged links to Russia, was used by the FBI to obtain court permission to spy on Trump’s campaign. The FBI made “basic, fundamental, and serious errors” in applying for a warrant to surveil Trump, Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz declared in 2019. The Department of Justice and the FBI failed to adequately examine or question the materials and motivations of those providing them, even when the Director of the FBI and others learned of significant and potentially contradictory intelligence.

The investigation led to three criminal cases being brought, none of which against senior FBI or Justice Department officials. CNN anchor Jake Tapper said the report was “devastating to the FBI and to a degree, it does exonerate Donald Trump,” and Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that the American public was scammed.