Why Durham played defense, who gave him the cold shoulder and what the report means for a key surveillance authority.
For four years, Special Counsel John Durham examined the origins of the FBI’s investigation of links between Russian officials and Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. His final report, which clocks in at more than 300 pages, wasIn the report’s introduction, Durham seems to respond to some Republicans’ disappointment that he failed to secure significant criminal convictions related to alleged FBI misconduct in the Trump-Russia probe.
Durham also seemed to dismiss the idea that the quick acquittals by juries of two of the three defendants his office prosecuted suggested his team’s efforts were misguided. It’s particularly hard to secure convictions in politically sensitive cases, the veteran federal prosecutor wrote.
Durham’s report also shows that his prosecutors ranged far afield of the core question of whether people involved in initiating or executive the FBI’s Trump-Russia probe should be prosecuted. “Comparing the respective investigative activity was significant to the investigation since it could support or undercut allegations of institutional bias against either candidate,” the special prosecutor wrote. However, he acknowledged that because the facts involved in the various allegations differ, comparing them is “undoubtedly an imperfect method” to assess whether such bias existed.
Durham does not mention the so-called Section 702 authority explicitly, but he does say he is not recommending anything “that would curtail the scope of reach of FISA or the FBI’s investigative activities … in a time of aggressive and hostile terrorist groups and foreign powers.”
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