Durham report a damning indictment of FBI, media
Special counsel John Durham’s report into the origins of the Trump-Russia collusion investigation is a damning indictment of the FBI — and, by extension, its enablers in the media who breathlessly reported the false allegations against Donald Trump. So, perhaps it’s unsurprising that many in the media are seeking to downplay Durham’s findings.
“After years of political hype, the Durham inquiry failed to deliver,” a New York Times headline blared. Please. Durham’s report outlines stunning abuses of power. That so many journalists don’t get it underscores why public trust in the media is at an all-time low.
The FBI opened its investigation of Trump, Durham writes, “upon receipt of unevaluated intelligence information from Australia,” which agents knew was flimsy. But they went ahead with a full investigation anyway, Durham reports, even though FBI personnel acknowledged “both then and in hindsight — that they did not genuinely believe there was probable cause to believe that the target (the Trump campaign) was knowingly engaged in clandestine intelligence activities on behalf of a foreign power.” They “disregarded significant exculpatory information” and used “investigative leads provided or funded (directly or indirectly) by Trump’s political opponents” to obtain search warrants. One FBI official falsified evidence presented to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
Worst of all, the FBI failed to inform the court that the primary source behind the Steele dossier, which the agency used to secure FISA warrants, was the subject of an unresolved FBI counterespionage investigation for ties to — wait for it — Russian intelligence.
Igor Danchenko, who was responsible for most of the information in the dossier, had a “long history with Russian intelligence officers” and had been under investigation by the FBI, Durham reports. That investigation was left unresolved because the FBI incorrectly believed Danchenko had returned to Russia.
The Trump investigators brushed off concerns raised by officials vetting Danchenko.They gave him a letter of immunity, paid him handsomely and kept that information from the FISA court. In other words, the FBI knowingly relied on a source who had been under investigation as a possible Russian spy to investigate whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia. You can’t make it up.
Think of what that means: Democrats funded the Steele dossier, which relied on a Russian with suspected ties to Russian intelligence. The FBI then included the dossier as part of the materials it used to investigate Trump, paralyzing our country, undermining a newly elected president while costing tens of millions of dollars — all over what ended up being a conspiracy theory.
The damage to the news media’s reputation has had deep repercussions. An Edelman poll in 2021 found 59% of Americans believe journalists are purposely trying to mislead people. A Times-Siena College poll last October found 84% of respondents view the media as a threat to democracy, More said the media is a major threat to democracy than said Trump is.
This collapse in trust directly contributed to the events of Jan. 6, 2021. The people who stormed the Capitol believed Trump’s false claims that the election was being stolen. Why? If the media lied to them about Trump and Russia, why should they trust reports that Trump’s election claims were false?
Durham’s report lays bare why trust in the media lies in tatters. If in 2024, Americans decide that journalists are a greater threat to our democracy than a second Trump term, they have no one to blame but themselves.