(NewsNation) — After four years of investigating, the final report is in from John Durham, the special counsel initially appointed by then-Attorney General Bill Barr, to examine the origins of the 2016 probe of the Trump campaign’s alleged ties to the Russians.
You will hear a lot of politicized analysis of this report on other networks from both sides. I’m going to try to play it straight for you and pull no punches with this analysis.
Here’s the bottom line. If you are one of those hoping for a knockout punch by Durham declaring that the FBI investigation was somehow criminal or even overtly politicized, then you likely will be disappointed.
But there is also no shortage of criticism from Durham for the investigation, which he sure seems to believe never should have been opened in the first place. Now, he doesn’t come out and say that directly in the report.
But John Durham declares “the Justice Department and the FBI failed to uphold their important mission of strict fidelity to the law.” That’s a big statement.
But the reason this isn’t that huge of a punch is the following. First, the DOJ inspector general already wrote a report in 2019, which laid out many of the same criticisms of the Russia investigation, where the inspector general declared that “basic and fundamental errors were made by three separate handpicked teams on one of the most sensitive FBI investigations that was briefed to the highest levels within the FBI.”
And yet, Inspector General Michael Horowitz determined that there was enough evidence to open the investigation and maybe most importantly, that “we did not find documentary or testimonial evidence that political bias or improper motivation influenced the decisions by the FBI.”
Then there was the Senate bipartisan committee, Republicans and Democrats, who wrote a 1,000 page report investigating the origins of the Russia investigation, and they too criticized the FBI, and yet also confirmed many of the facts that led to the opening of the investigation.
Now, the FBI says it’s already made changes in response to those investigations. And while John Durham argued in his report that was just released Monday, the evidence used to open the investigation was based on raw, unanalyzed and uncorroborated intelligence, and he noted a noticeable departure from how it approached other matters, he never specifically concluded that the investigation was driven by political bias.
The closest he got to that was when he wrote: “Our investigation revealed that senior FBI personnel displayed a serious lack of analytical rigor toward the information that they received especially information received from politically affiliated persons and entities. In particular, there was significant reliance on investigative leads provided or funded, directly or indirectly, by Trump’s political opponents. The department did not adequately examine or question these materials, and the motivations of those providing them before opening a full scale investigation.”
Now, that is definitely stronger language than was used by either the inspector general or the bipartisan Senate report, and it certainly hints at possible bias. But, it is still a far cry from criminality or even a declaration that the FBI was on a mission to bring down Donald Trump.
Now remember, Durham is also coming off a number of setbacks. He did get a guilty plea from an FBI lawyer for altering an email used in one of the FISA warrant renewal applications used to authorize surveillance, but then had two acquittals at trials for individuals he accused of lying to the FBI. It’s unusual for the feds to lose trials.
Many conservatives, including Trump, had long hoped that Durham would expose a bias deep-state and prosecute them. Those people will be disappointed.
But the problems with the FBI exposed by the inspector general and this Durham report are real. And even the FBI itself in a statement seemed to appreciate that, when they said: “The conduct in 2016 and 2017 that special counsel Durham examined was the reason that current FBI leadership already implemented dozens of corrective actions, which have now been in place for some time. Had those reforms been in place in 2016, the missteps identified in the report could have been prevented. This report reinforces the importance of ensuring the FBI continues to do its work with the rigor, objectivity and professionalism the American people deserve and rightly expect.”
Look, good people can disagree on the Russia investigation. But one thing everyone seems to agree on is that serious errors were made, particularly with the renewables in the FISA court.
But to accuse the FBI and its leadership of politicized corruption requires evidence, and with the end of the Durham investigation, it seems that evidence does not exist.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author, and not of NewsNation.