Special counsel John Durham, who recently released a report about the origins of the ‘Russiagate’ probe against former President Donald Trump, will be testifying in a closed-door session of the House Intelligence Committee this week.
House Intelligence Committee Chair Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH) told CNN this week that Durham’s findings were “very troubling.”
He said that accusations that Trump’s campaign worked with the Russian government were “absolutely false.”
The Durham Report’s findings are very troubling.
The FBI went to great lengths to find evidence supporting their narrative while ignoring key facts.
Today, I spoke with @JakeTapper on @CNNSOTU about what to expect at @HouseIntel’s hearing with Special Counsel John Durham. pic.twitter.com/fi9eOl5LbP
— US Rep. Mike Turner (@RepMikeTurner) June 18, 2023
Turner said that the report showed that the investigation into collusion claims “was the result of people who had political bias who undertook an investigation based upon total Clinton campaign-funded research that was uncorroborated and turned out to be even untrue. And that’s where you have to be concerned.”
Furthermore, the Ohio Republican framed the issue as the federal government “lying to you.”
He added that “we have to look at what happened here, how do we make certain this doesn’t happen again.”
Durham was appointed by former Attorney General William Barr to investigate the starting point of accusations that the Trump 2016 campaign colluded with the Russian government.
Accusations of collusion were refuted by an earlier investigation by former FBI Director Robert Mueller.
According to Durham, the Department of Justice (DOJ) did not have adequate evidence to begin its investigation into the Russia collusion claims. The report, which was more than 300 pages, stated that the DOJ and FBI “failed to uphold their mission of strict fidelity to the law.”
Durham said that members of FBI leadership showed “a serious lack of analytical rigor toward the information that they received, especially information received from politically-affiliated persons and entities.”
In particular, Durham focused on the fact that many of the leads used by the FBI and DOJ were funded by Trump’s political opposition.
“The Department did not adequately examine or question these materials and the motivations of those providing them, even when at about the same time the Director of the FBI and others learned of significant and potentially contrary intelligence,” he said.
