News/Commentary

Trump reacts to Durham report with FURY, GOP presidential candidates weigh-in

May 16, 2023 | | Print Article

Accountability was the forefront for former President Donald Trump as he led the reactions to the release of Special Counsel John Durham’s report and the “treasonous charade” presented in more than 300 pages.

Monday afternoon, Durham’s final report, investigating whether Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign had colluded with Russia to influence the election, was turned over to the Justice Department.

Conducted in response to the FBI investigation “Crossfire Hurricane,” the report said in part, “Based on the review of Crossfire Hurricane and related intelligence activities, we conclude that the Department and the FBI failed to uphold their mission of strict fidelity to the law in connection with certain events and activities described in this report.”

In addition to a slew of posts on social media, the president spoke with Fox News Digital Monday and said, “I, and much more importantly, the American public have been victims of this long-running and treasonous charade started by the Democrats — started by [former FBI Director James] Comey.”

“There must be a heavy price to pay for putting our country through this,” he added and suggested, “the national security implications of what they did are very grave.”

On Truth Social Trump had exclaimed, “THE CRIME OF THE CENTURY!” “CONGRESS MUST DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS. MUST NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN!” and “TREASON!!!”

He also went on to praise Durham for investigating what “turned out to be a giant and very dangerous hoax,” and told Fox News Digital, “This report took a long time because John Durham is a very thorough investigator. But the result is unequivocal and an absolute disaster in terms of justice.”

According to the investigation, “senior FBI personnel displayed a serious lack of analytical rigor towards the information that they received, especially information received from politically-affiliated persons and entities”

“This information in part triggered and sustained Crossfire Hurricane and contributed to the subsequent need for Special Counsel [Robert] Mueller’s investigation. In particular, there was significant reliance on investigative leads provided or funded (directly or indirectly) by Trump’s political opponents,” the report said.

It continued, “The Department did not adequately examine or question these materials and the motivations of those providing them, even when at about the same time the Director of the FBI and others learned of significant and potentially contrary intelligence.”

Reacting to the report, the FBI released a statement of their own downplaying their actions as “missteps” that had since been addressed.

“The conduct in 2016 and 2017 that Special Counsel Durham examined was the reason that current FBI leadership already implemented dozens of corrective actions, which have now been in place for some time,” the agency statement read. “Had those reforms been in place in 2016, the missteps identified in the report could have been prevented. This report reinforces the importance of ensuring the FBI continues to do its work with the rigor, objectivity, and professionalism the American people deserve and rightly expect.”

Republican figures saw the report for what it was and called the agency, and by extension the unchecked bureaucracy that it represented, out for “abuse of power.”

Among them was Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis who tweeted, “The Durham Report confirmed what we already knew: weaponized federal agencies manufactured a false conspiracy theory about Trump-Russia collusion. It reminds us of the need to clean house at these agencies, as they’ve never been held accountable for this egregious abuse of power.”

Announced presidential candidates also spoke up, including Vivek Ramaswamy who called the report a “scathing indictment of the FBI” that supports his “proposal to shut it down” and former UN ambassador Nikki Haley referred to it as “damning evidence of the rot in our government.”

The unified message, reminiscent of the galvanized GOP in the wake of the FBI’s raid of Trump’s residence at Mar-a-Lago, left the president teasing “further comment in the near future” as other prominent figures weighed in.

 

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Kevin Haggerty
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