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WASHINGTON — A long-awaited report has strongly criticized the FBI’s handling of its investigation into ties between Russia and the 2016 Trump campaign.
In a 300-page report, special counsel John Durham said the FBI’s probe lacked “analytical rigor”.
Trump had vowed that Durham’s report would uncover the “crime of the century”.
The FBI said it has addressed the issues highlighted in the report.
In the report, Durham — who was appointed by then-Attorney General William Barr in 2019 — accused the FBI of acting on “raw, unanalyzed and uncorroborated intelligence” when it launched the probe.
Among the various investigative mistakes it made were repeated instances of “confirmation bias” that ignored information that undercut the initial premise of the investigation, which was known by the codename “Crossfire Hurricane”.
In a statement, the FBI said it had “already implemented dozens of corrective actions”.
“Had those reforms been in place in 2016, the missteps identified in the report could have been prevented,” the statement added.
The investigation into alleged ties between the Trump campaign and Russia, which was carried out by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, led to dozens of criminal charges against former Trump campaign staff, and concluded that Russia had attempted to interfere in the 2016 election.
It did not, however, find that the Trump campaign and Russia conspired together to influence the election.
On his Truth Social social media platform on Monday, Trump said the report shows that the “American public was scammed”.
Durham’s four-year investigation has resulted in three prosecutions, including an FBI attorney who pleaded guilty to altering evidence while applying for permission to eavesdrop on a former Trump campaign official.
Two other people were acquitted on charges of lying to the FBI. BBC
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