US Special Counsel John Durham slams FBI investigation of Trump-Russia collusion
- The probe was based on flimsy evidence and seriously flawed, according to a 300-page report by the independent prosecutor
- Durham also said the FBI and Justice Department displayed a double standard in the manner in which they investigated Trump and his 2016 rival Hillary Clinton
The FBI investigation into alleged collusion between Russia and Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign was based on flimsy evidence and seriously flawed, an independent US prosecutor said in a report published on Monday.
Special Counsel John Durham was appointed in 2019 by then president Trump’s attorney general Bill Barr to address allegations – made most prominently by Trump himself – that the Russia investigation was a political “witch hunt.”
Durham’s more than 300-page report follows a four-year investigation that continued under Barr’s successor, Attorney General Merrick Garland, an appointee of Democratic President Joe Biden.
The long-awaited report was highly critical of the origins of “Crossfire Hurricane”, the FBI’s probe into allegations of collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign.
“Neither US law enforcement nor the Intelligence Community appears to have possessed any actual evidence of collusion in their holdings at the commencement of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation,” the report said.
