More than six years after Donald Trump proclaimed that the FBI's Crossfire Hurricane investigation was a "witch hunt" by the deep state, special counsel John Durham has all but vindicated the former president.
"Based on the review of Crossfire Hurricane and related intelligence activities, we conclude that the Department and the FBI failed to uphold their important mission of strict fidelity to the law in connection with certain events and activities described in this report," read the long-awaited Durham report. "As noted, former FBI attorney Kevin Clinesmith committed a criminal offense by fabricating language in an email that was material to the FBI obtaining a FISA surveillance order. In other instances, FBI personnel working on that same FISA application displayed, at best, a cavalier attitude towards accuracy and completeness. FBI personnel also repeatedly disregarded important requirements when they continued to seek renewals of that FISA surveillance while acknowledging — both then and in hindsight — that they did not genuinely believe there was probable cause to believe that the target was knowingly engaged in clandestine intelligence activities on behalf of a foreign power, or knowingly helping another person in such activities."
DEMOCRATS' GREEN ENERGY HANDOUTS ARE BAD FOR AMERICA
Although Trump was the primary target of the investigation, the state ran roughshod over the civil liberties of other U.S. citizens. The unvetted Steele Dossier, which the Durham report concluded was indeed sourced from Russian national Igor Danchenko, was used in the FBI's FISA warrants against Carter Page "within days of" the FBI receiving the dossier. Across the four separate FISA applications the FBI made against Page, the report found a total of 17 errors, "far more than the four material errors found in the larger group of 29 non-Page applications" provided in an audit from the Office of the Inspector General.
Further, the Obama administration knew that Hillary Clinton concocted the Russia hoax four months before the 2016 election.
"According to his handwritten notes, CIA Director [John] Brennan subsequently briefed President Obama and other senior national security officials on the intelligence, including the 'alleged approval by Hillary Clinton on July 26, 2016 of a proposal from one of her foreign policy advisors to vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by Russian security services,'" read the 306-page report, which explains that the "Clinton Plan" was designed specifically "as a means of distracting the public from her use of a private email server."
Despite the widespread knowledge of the Clinton Plan, the Durham report concluded that the FBI, when given the opportunity to target Trump, took the actual Russian disinformation of the Steele dossier as gospel while repeatedly deferring and downgrading investigations into the Clinton Foundation and Clinton's own rumored collusion with foreign governments.
"In the end, the perceived difference between the approaches taken and mindsets of FBI personnel central to both the Clinton and Trump matters is well-captured in a February 24, 2016 email between FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe's Special Assistant Lisa Page and her lover, counter-intelligence official Peter Strzok. Prior to the FBI's interview of Clinton in the investigation of her use of a private email server while she was serving as Secretary of State, the following exchange took place," the report indicated.
"Page: One more thing: [Clinton] may be our next president. The last thing you need [is] going in there loaded for bear. You think she's going to remember or care that it was more doj than fbi?
Strzok: Agreed ...."
Well, the 'collusion' looks to have been more against Trump than by him. On that, now we should all agree.