A jubilant Donald Trump celebrated after the final report from special prosecutor John Durham into the FBI’s probe of alleged connections between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 election was released on Monday. The release comes four years after Durham launched his investigation.
In the report, Durham was critical of the bureau’s handling, writing, “Facts and circumstances that were inconsistent with the premise that Trump and/or associated with the Trump campaign were involved in a collusive or conspiratorial relationship with the Russian government were ignored or simply assessed away.”
The special prosecutor also accused the FBI of a “lack of analytical rigor” and said that the bureau acted hastily and on “uncorroborated, raw information,” according to NBC reporter Ken Dilanian (watch video below).
Durham, who was appointed by then-Attorney General Bill Barr, was unable to reveal a deep state conspiracy, as Trump had previously indicated he would find. But that didn’t stop Trump from blasting out a celebratory post on his social media site.
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“WOW! After extensive research, Special Counsel John Durham concludes the FBI never should have launched the Trump-Russia Probe!” Trump wrote. “In other words, the American Public was scammed, just as it is being scammed right now by those who don’t want to see GREATNESS for AMERICA!”
As noted by Dilanian, Durham’s findings contradict those of a 2019 Justice Department Inspector General report that was issued under Donald Trump’s administration.
“The Department of Justice also looked into all of these events and interviewed a lot of these people, and concluded that the FBI was justified in opening that investigation,” reported Dilanian. “And also that those decisions were free of any political bias.”
The investigation into Trump’s possible collusion with the Russian government began when Trump campaign aide and foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos, told an Australian diplomat that the Russians told the Trump campaign they could leak information damaging to Hillary Clinton.
Ultimately, special counsel Robert Mueller investigated the ordeal and found that there were numerous contacts between the Trump campaign and the Russians. Due to a Justice Department policy, there was no investigation directly into Trump.
However, the probe found at least ten cases of obstruction of justice by the former president. The cases have never been prosecuted.
Watch the NBC report below.
