The John Durham special counsel report into FBI and DOJ malfeasance related to the investigation into supposed Trump-Russia collusion has been released, and what was found was stunning, if not surprising.
(See:Â BREAKING: 306-Page Durham Report Released, Blows up Any Idea of Collusion)
The marquee finding was that there was no evidentiary basis for Crossfire Hurricane at all. The FBI was being fed unverified “intelligence” almost exclusively from a partisan operation named Fusion GPS. Yet, instead of shuttering the investigation for lack of any probable cause, the FBI soldiered forward, seeking to entrap Donald Trump and force a special counsel investigation.
On that front, the deep state succeeded, leaving the Trump administration to be hounded by Robert Mueller for years on end. Ironically, it wasn’t anything Mueller found or reported that ultimately did the most harm. Rather, it was the incessant deluge of illegal leaks that sought to paint Trump as some kind of Kremlin agent. Such lies meant to look authoritative no doubt played a role in his 2020 election defeat.
Unfortunately, no one in federal law enforcement will be held accountable, and the FBI has already let that be known by releasing a shameless statement in response to the Durham report.
Statement on Report by Special Counsel John Durhamhttps://t.co/lcow0ea3mG pic.twitter.com/T4vXqoOMrp
— FBI (@FBI) May 15, 2023
Ask yourself, what “corrective actions” were actually taken by the FBI to atone for what happened with Crossfire Hurricane and eventually spilled over into the Mueller investigation? The answer is absolutely nothing of value. Once Wray took over, he claimed to implement new policies, but new policies are not enough. They also don’t seem to be working very well given the FBI is still a hotbed of partisan activity.
The bigger issue is accountability for individuals, though. The only people who lost their jobs lost them because the Trump administration forced their firing. To this day, no one else inside the FBI has been fired or sanctioned for participating in the farce that was Crossfire Hurricane. That is inexplicable given it was the most grotesque, impactful abuse of government power in modern American history, literally affecting the outcome of a presidential election.
For the FBI to brush off the Durham report as merely revealing “missteps” is ridiculous. They were not missteps. They were part of a partisan pursuit to destroy a presidency. Wray and the rest of the FBI leadership refuse to acknowledge that, and for that, they can never be trusted to be the ones to fix the situation. Yes, the American people deserve “rigor, objectivity, and professionalism, but the FBI is providing none of that. Instead, it continues to operate as an arm of the Democratic Party.
There’s only one way that gets fixed: Completely dismantling the FBI and the DOJ. Any Republican running in 2024 should make that a cardinal issue, and many already have. The problem is too obvious to ignore. The only way to rebuild trust in our institutions is to tear out the rot that currently exists. And when the time comes, Wray needs to be one of the first casualties of that pursuit.