Durham Defends Report Before Congress—Failure to Act Will ‘Erode the Public’s Faith and Confidence in Our Justice System'

Special Counsel John Durham appearing before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday testified in accordance with his report that outlined in "sobering" terms the extensive misconduct committed throughout Operation Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI's investigation of the 'Trump-Russia' or 'Russiagate' hoax. He warned that the dysfunction he uncovered in the Dept. of Justice, if unaddressed, poses "significant national security risks."

As reported by The Washington Examiner, Durham strenuously defended his investigation before the committee in his first public testimony since its release and argued that "the findings set forth in this report are serious and deserve attention from the American public and its elected representatives."

The investigation was based primarily on the content of the so-called 'Steele dossier,' a piece of opposition research developed partly on the orders of Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign,. During his testimony, Durham reiterated that "There is not a single substantive piece of information in the [Steele dossier] that has ever been corroborated by the FBI or, to my knowledge, by anyone else."
 

“There is not a single substantive piece of information in the [Steele dossier] that has ever been corroborated by the FBI or, to my knowledge, by anyone else.” - Special Counsel John Durham pic.twitter.com/k8pkn6Zi9h

— Heritage Foundation (@Heritage) June 21, 2023

Responding to questioning from Committee Chair Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, he revealed that "The FBI was too willing to accept and use politically funded and uncorroborated opposition research such as the Steele Dossier."

🚨BREAKING: John Durham testifies before House Judiciary Committee: "The FBI was too willing to accept and use politically funded and uncorroborated opposition research such as the Steele Dossier." pic.twitter.com/bi4mHvQPoN

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) June 21, 2023

According to the Examiner, he told the committee that the thoroughly debunked dossier was used to obtain a flawed FISA Court surveillance order against Trump campaign staffer Carter Page.
 

“Many of the most significant issues documented in the report that we have written — including those related to lack of investigative discipline, failure to take logical investigative steps, and bias — are relevant to national security interests that this committee and the American people are concerned about,” Durham told Congress.

“If repeated and left unaddressed, these issues could result in significant national security risks and further erode the public’s faith and confidence in our justice system.”

“While I’m encouraged by some of the reforms that have been implemented by the FBI, the problems identified in this report … are not susceptible to overnight fixes,” Durham stressed per the Examiner.

“As we said in the report, they cannot be addressed solely by enhancing training or additional policy requirements, rather what is required is accountability, both in terms of the standards which our law enforcement personnel hold themselves, and in the consequences they face for violations of laws and policies.”

Durham responded sharply to criticisms from Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler, who characterized the Durham probe, and Wednesday's hearing as a vehicle for "an entire false narrative around the work of special counsel Durham in an effort to distract from the former president’s legal troubles and mislead the American public.”

“We found troubling violations of law and policy in the conduct of highly consequential investigations directed at members of a presidential campaign and ultimately a presidential administration,” Durham answered incisively. “To me, it matters not whether it was a Republican campaign or a Democratic campaign — it was a presidential campaign.”

Jordan, in spite of Durham's statement that he is "encouraged by some of the reforms that have been implemented by the FBI," noted that in the seven years since the 2016 campaign "nothing has changed, and frankly they’re never going to stop.”

The Judicial Committee Chairman warned, “seven years of attacking Trump is scary enough, but what is more frightening is that any one of us could be next.”

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