Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham called for the FBI and the Department of Justice (DOJ) to hold themselves accountable for the Russian collusion investigation following the release of the Durham report.
Special Counsel John Durham said Monday he found evidence of the FBI using “uncorroborated intelligence” when launching its investigation into former President Donald Trump and failed to uphold “strict fidelity to the law.” Democratic Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin issued a statement saying the report cost American taxpayers millions just to “reiterate” the conclusions of the Justice Department’s inspector general’s (IG) report in 2019.
“He’s [Durbin] completely, absolutely wrong,” Graham said on “America’s Newsroom” Tuesday. “The IG said there was reason to open the investigation. Durham said there was no corroborating evidence to suggest that the Trump team colluded with the Russians in any fashion. So it’s absolutely contrary to what the IG said. Here’s what I would say to Senator Durbin, if you’re not disturbed by this, you just hate Trump too much. I don’t care what your politics are.”
“We have a situation where the FBI ran every stop sign available, kept pushing a warrant against an American citizen based on a Steele dossier that was a piece of fiction, the information was supplied to the FBI by two Russian agents, it was used to get a warrant against an American citizen to turn his life upside down and create a cloud over the Trump presidency and try to deny him the presidency,” the South Carolina senator continued.
The 2019 IG report found no evidence of political bias in the FBI’s investigation into whether the 2016 Trump presidential campaign colluded with Russia to win the election against Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, but criticized the FBI for “basic and fundamental errors” while carrying it out. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Jim Jordan Invites John Durham To Testify After DOJ Releases Report)
After a two-year investigation, former FBI Director Robert Mueller found the Trump campaign did not collude with Russia, and the information in the Steele dossier, put forth by former British spy Christopher Steele, were false and thus discredited.
Graham called on Attorney General Merrick Garland and the FBI Director Christopher Wray to apologize to those whom the agencies targeted during the investigation into the Russian collusion investigation. Democratic strategist James Carville downplayed the Durham report on MSNBC. Joe Scarborough also referred to the report as “a dud.”
Graham said former FBI director James Comey “lied” to the Senate Judiciary Committee about attempting to verify the Steele dossier. The Durham Report said the FBI had attempted to do so. The senator then argued that no one will likely be held accountable for the alleged flaws in the investigation.
“Wouldn’t it be nice for the agency to apologize to those whose lives are ruined, wouldn’t be nice for Garland to pick up the phone and say ‘I’m sorry this happened to you,’ wouldn’t it be nice for the press to admit we got it wrong? No, that’s not gonna happen. But here’s what’s gonna happen,” he said. “People are gonna get mad on our side, this is a generational damage to the FBI. This is gonna be hard to convince anybody that’s a conservative or middle-of-the-road that the FBI is on the up and up, particularly if they still got their thumb on the scale regarding the Hunter Biden investigation.”
“They just want get Trump and they don’t care how they do it, that’s what’s so sad to me,” Graham added.