Special Counsel John Durham’s final report showed everyone what we already knew: There was no collusion between Trump and Russia in 2016 or ever.
It was all a lie. The FBI, DOJ, Democrats, and those suffering from TDS didn’t care.
Thank you, TechnoFog, for highlighting the key points!
Given the foregoing, and viewing the facts in a light most favorable to the Crossfire Hurricane investigators, it seems highly likely that, at a minimum, confirmation bias played a significant role in the FBI’s acceptance of extraordinarily serious allegations derived from uncorroborated information that had not been subjected to the typical exacting analysis employed by the FBI and other members of the Intelligence Community. In short, it is the Office’s assessment that the FBI discounted or willfully ignored material information that did not support the narrative of a collusive relationship between Trump and Russia. Similarly, the FBI Inspection Division Report says that the investigators “repeatedly ignore[ d] or explain[ ed] away evidence contrary to the theory the Trump campaign … had conspired with Russia …. It appeared that … there was a pattern of assuming nefarious intent.” An objective and honest assessment of these strands of information should have caused the FBI to question not only the predication for Crossfire Hurricane, but also to reflect on whether the FBI was being manipulated for political or other purposes. Unfortunately, it did not.
Did you know the FBI had two investigations into Hillary Clinton? Yup! Agents investigated the Clinton Foundation and alleged “illegal foreign contributions to Clinton’s campaign.”
Three different FBI field offices had investigations into the Clinton Foundation over allegations such as “foreign governments that had made, or offered to make, contributions to the Foundation in exchange for favorable or preferential treatment from Clinton.”
FBI Assistant Director Andrew McCabe told the offices to shut down the investigations in February 2016. Agents said no, so McCabe then said they had to get his approval to proceed with any investigative steps.
Then FBI Director James Comey made the New York field office stop its investigation.
The report details three instances of a “threat of foreign election influence by” foreign governments regarding Clinton’s campaign. It had nothing to do with Trump.
Instead, “both senior FBI and Department officials placed restrictions on how those matters were to be handled such that essentially no investigative activities occurred for months leading up to the election.”
But the FBI and DOJ had no problem diving into an investigation over a relationship between Trump and Russia.
The Clinton Campaign Plan came to be after Hillary approved a proposal “to vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by the Russian security services.”
President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and Attorney General Loretta Lynch all received briefings on the supposed intelligence from the Clinton Campaign Plan along with the CIA and FBI.
However, the FBI never vetted the information:
The Office located no evidence that in conducting the Crossfire Hurricane investigation the FBI considered whether and how the Clinton Plan intelligence might impact the investigation. No FBI personnel who were interviewed by the Office recalled Crossfire Hurricane personnel taking any action to vet the Clinton Plan intelligence. 422 For example, Brian Auten stated that he could not recall anything that the FBI did to analyze, or otherwise consider the Clinton Plan intelligence, stating that it was “just one data point.”This stands in sharp contrast to its substantial reliance on the uncorroborated Steele Reports, which at least some FBI personnel appeared to know was likely being funded or promoted by the Clinton campaign.
Durham found out that Comey micromanaged the investigation. Let’s look at the Carter Page FISA warrant.
The FBI agents doubted Page’s warrant and that doubt grew as the investigation grew. The agents “relied substantially on the reports to assert probable cause that Page was knowingly engaged in clandestine intelligence activities on behalf of Russia, or knowingly helping another person in such activities.”
And yet none of them could “corroborate a single substantive allegation contained in the Steele Reports, despite protracted efforts to do so.” From the report (emphasis mine):
Moreover, significant intelligence information that first became available for the FBI to review in 2018 showed that the Russians had access to sensitive U.S. government information years earlier that would have allowed them to identify Steele’s subsources. Indeed, an experienced FBI analyst assessed that as a result of their access to the information, Steele’s subsources could have been compromised by the Russians at a point in time prior to the date of the first Steele dossier report. The review team initially briefed Counterintelligence and Cyber executive management about their findings during a conference call. Following the call, while driving home, Headquarters Analyst-3 was called by Acting Section Chief-2. Acting Section Chief-2 told Headquarters Analyst-3 that they appreciated the team’s work, but no more memorandums were to be written. A meeting was then held with Assistant Director Priestap and others. During that meeting, the review team was told to be careful about what they were writing down because issues relating to Steele were under intense scrutiny. Two weeks later, the Deputy Assistant Director for Counterintelligence, Dina Corsi, met with the review team and directed them not to document any recommendations, context, or analysis in the memorandum they were preparing. The instructions, which Headquarters Analyst-3 described as “highly unusual,” concerned the team because analysis is what analysts do. Although the team did not fully adhere to that instruction because ofthe need to provide context to the team’s findings, they did tone down their conclusions in the final memorandum. Headquarters Analyst-3 recalled that a separate briefing on the review was eventually provided by the team in the Deputy Director’s conference room, although Headquarters Analyst-3 could not recall if Deputy Director David Bowdich attended the briefing. Headquarters Analyst-3 did know that Bowdich was aware of the review itself.
Durham indicted Danchenko, a primary subsource, in 2021 for allegedly making false statements to the FBI. He was found not guilty.
The FBI seemed to like him, though, despite placing him under investigation from 2009-2011. The agency used him after identifying him in 2017 as Steele’s source for the dossier.
However, in January 2017, Danchenko could not “provide any corroborative evidence related to any substantive allegation contained in the Steele Reports – and critically- was unable to corroborate any of the FBI’s assertions contained in the Carter Page FISA applications.”
That didn’t matter because the FBI recruited Danchenko as a source and put him on the books in March 2017. The agency completely ignored warnings about him or the previous investigation. They paid him $220,000 for three years. They also wanted to keep paying him, “totaling more than $300,000,” as Durham investigated the collusion case.
The FBI kept paying Danchenko even after they found out he lied to them. Ridiculous.
“It is extremely concerning that the FBI failed to deal with the prior unresolved counterespionage case on Danchenko,” wrote Durham. “Given Danchenko’s known contacts with Russian intelligence officers and his documented prior pitch for classified information, the Crossfire Hurricane team’s failure to properly consider and address the espionage case prior to opening Danchenko as a CHS is difficult to explain, particularly given their awareness that Danchenko was the linchpin to the uncorroborated allegations contained in the Steele Reports.”
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