A special counsel appointed by former US President Trump has strongly criticized the FBI’s investigation into possible contacts between Trump’s campaign team and Russia in 2016.
The Russia Special Investigator appointed by former US President Donald Trump has presented his final report after four years of work and criticized the FBI’s federal police work.
In May 2019, John Durham was assigned to investigate the FBI’s Russia investigation into the 2016 Trump campaign team. In the paper, the 73-year-old came to the conclusion that the FBI should not have conducted the investigation in this way.
Criticism of hostile sentiments against Trump
The more than 300-page report was published on Monday. The “speed and manner” with which the FBI opened the investigation — based, among other things, on “unconfirmed intelligence” — reflects a “significant departure from the manner” the FBI has investigated similar cases in the past, the report said.
Investigations against Democrat Hillary Clinton, for example. Durham said the FBI officials had “strong antagonistic feelings toward Trump.”
Trump Ministry of Justice to a different outcome in 2019
The background to the FBI investigation was Moscow’s suspected influence on the 2016 presidential campaign. For several years there have been investigations into whether the Trump campaign camp had secret agreements with representatives of Russia at the time and whether Trump was obstructing the judicial investigation. Trump has long called the investigations a “witch hunt”. His election campaign at the time was itself the target of illegal surveillance.
A December 2019 report by the US Department of Justice’s internal regulator reached a different conclusion than Durham Now’s. No evidence was found that the investigation was launched in July 2016 due to political bias.
However, the report also acknowledged serious FBI errors: for example, surveillance requests as part of investigations showed significant shortcomings.
