The FBI made a tacit admission Monday to the findings of the Durham Report showing the agency acted improperly when investigating former President Donald Trump and the alleged Russian collusion.
Special Counsel John Durham found the FBI used “uncorroborated intelligence” when it launched its investigation into Trump ahead of the 2016 election. The report also found agents failed to maintain “strict fidelity to the law” throughout its investigation.
The FBI responded shortly after its release, acknowledging the errors made in 2016, which concedes the findings of the Durham report are accurate.
“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,” the statement reads.
“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.”
ALEXANDRIA, VA – OCTOBER 11: Russian analyst Igor Danchenko (C) walks to the Albert V. Bryan U.S. Courthouse during a lunch break in his trial on October 11, 2022 in Alexandria, Virginia. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Durham’s report also found that “neither U.S. nor the Intelligence Community appears to have possessed any actual evidence of collusion in their holdings at the commencement” of the investigation. (RELATED: ‘It Does Exonerate Donald Trump’: Tapper Calls Durham Report ‘Devastating To The FBI’)
“Our investigation determined that the Crossfire Hurricane investigators did not and could not corroborate any of the substantive allegations contained in the Steele reporting,” the report found.
Durham was appointed by then-Attorney General Bill Barr in 2020 to investigate the investigation of Crossfire Hurricane. Crossfire Hurricane later determined there was no evidence of criminal conspiracy between any Trump campaign officials and operatives of the Russian government.