Federal police were satisfied with questionable information to open an investigation into suspected collusion between Moscow and Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential election, and are dealing with a special prosecutor in a report published Monday.
• Also read: Diversity programs banned in Florida campuses
• Also read: program on CNN, and Trump reignites the debate over his place in the media
John Durham believes that the FBI relied on “raw intelligence that was not analyzed or confirmed” to launch its investigations and then lacked “objectivity” in managing this particular political dossier.
Donald Trump has long denounced the “Russia investigation,” which darkened the first part of the Republican president’s mandate without revealing solid evidence of collusion, as a “witch hunt” orchestrated by his opponents.
Shortly before the end of his term his government entrusted John Durham with the task of investigating the origins of this inquiry. After three years of investigations, he presented his conclusions, which ran to more than 300 pages.
In addition to the weakness of the elements that initiated the investigation, the special prosecutor accuses the Federal Police of acting according to a system of two weights, two measures.
“The speed and manner in which the FBI decided to ‘investigate Donald Trump’ contrasts with the approach taken previously in the case of possible foreign interference in the campaign,” Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton wrote, also commenting on the “cavalier attitude” of some investigators.
For him, “The FBI and DOJ must recognize that a lack of analytical rigor, confirmation bias, and an over-reliance on sources associated with political opponents have prevented investigators from considering alternative hypotheses and “acting with appropriate objectivity.”
However, the Special Prosecutor does not recommend specific prosecutions or reforms.
He argues that “the answer is not in making new rules, but in renewing allegiance to the old rules.”
Donald Trump, who is seeking a second term in 2024, was quick to praise his work. “After extensive research, Special Prosecutor John Durham has concluded that the FBI should not have launched the Trump-Russia investigation,” he wrote in Truth Social. “In other words, the American public has been screwed,” he adds.
As for the FBI, it asserted that the facts described by Mr. Durham had already led to “dozens of corrective actions.” “Had they been around in 2016, the blunders identified in this report could have been avoided,” commented one of its spokespeople.
“Evil thinker. Music scholar. Hipster-friendly communicator. Bacon geek. Amateur internet enthusiast. Introvert.”