Two top House committees will hear directly from Special Counsel John Durham this week after his release damning report showing that the Justice Department and FBI had no basis to launch the Trump-Russia probe.
Durham was appointed in 2019 by then-Attorney General Bill Barr to investigate misconduct related to “Crossfire Hurricane,” which was investigating allegations of conspiracy between Trump and Russia.
Four years later, he concluded that the FBI had opened the flawed investigation “on the basis of raw, unanalyzed and unconfirmed information.”
On Tuesday, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) chaired by Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, a closed-door hearing with Durham. The House Judiciary Committee chaired by R-Ohio Chairman Jim Jordan will receive Durham in a public setting on Wednesday.
As part of the closed-door hearing, Turner told DailyMail.com that the committee plans to work with Durham to find legal solutions to resolve systemic issues within the Justice Department.
Durham — who was appointed by then-Attorney General Bill Barr in 2019 to investigate misconduct related to Crossfire Hurricane — concluded that the FBI opened the investigation “based on raw, unanalyzed and unconfirmed information”
Turner said the aspect of Durham’s report he found “most disturbing” is that it shows “misconduct at the FBI, at the Department of Justice and concerns among the intelligence community itself.”
“I’ve had personal conversations with John Durham that our goal…is not just to go through his report and the issues he identifies, but to get his recommendations on where changes need to be made.”
Turner said it’s important to promote solutions right now as the committee is in the process of extending Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) – which is due to be completed by the end of the year.
He added that another major concern is that the DOJ and FBI used opposition research in political campaigns “to politicize government functions in order to negatively influence an opposition candidate.”
He hopes to work with Durham and the committee to find solutions as soon as possible before the next election.
It’s not just a matter of bad people in positions of power corrupting those positions. It’s also that our rules and laws need to be changed so that these mechanisms can’t be used again in this way to really harm the American public.”
The hearings come as the FBI investigates Biden for alleged mishandling of classified documents, and just days after Trump appeared in court in Miami and was arrested on 37 federal counts related to files found at Mar-a-Lago.
Republican Senators Ron Johnson and Chuck Grassley are also urging Durham to provide answers about why top FBI officials — including former director James Comey and deputy director Andrew McCabe — refused to cooperate with his investigation into the opening of the covert investigation between Trump and Russia.
Durham issued 2,800 subpoenas, executed 500 search warrants, and conducted hundreds of interviews with key officials, including Hillary Clinton and her campaign aides, Trump campaign officials, and hundreds of FBI officials involved — but a few of the FBI’s top executives, in particular, refused to participate at the time. working with the Durham probe.
Durham did not interview James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strozk, Bill Preistap, Kevin Clinesmith – who was convicted by Durham of illegally modifying an email – and Fusion GPS’s Glenn Simpson, whom Republican senators call “weird.”
“As we continue to review the report, we noticed that several former high-level government officials directly involved with Crossfire Hurricane either declined or partially refused to cooperate with your investigation,” Johnson, R-Wis., and Grassley, R- Iowa, wrote in a letter to Durham last month.
The senators point to a footnote in the report stating that “some personnel” of the FBI’s counterintelligence division “refused to cooperate” with the investigation.
The FBI leadership intervened to “encourage those individuals to agree to be interviewed,” the report also notes.
“It seems strange that individuals would be allowed to avoid full cooperation with your office, especially given your authority to coerce testimony and documents,” they write.
The Republicans are urging Durham to provide information on whether Durham subpoenaed those specific individuals and whether DOJ “impeded” any of his agency’s investigative practices.
Durham will testify before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on June 20
Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, had confirmed to DailyMail.com that he would request Durham to appear before his committee
While Durham’s report does not recommend “wholesale changes” to Justice Department guidelines or policies, it says there is an “ongoing need” for the agencies to acknowledge the lack of “analytical rigor” and apparent “confirmation bias.”
The FBI responded to the report in a statement to DailyMail.com, saying “corrective actions” have now been taken that would have prevented “missteps in 2016.”
“The conduct in 2016 and 2017 that Special Counsel Durham investigated was the reason the current FBI leadership has already taken dozens of corrective actions, which have been in effect for some time now,” the FBI told DailyMail.com.
If those reforms had taken place in 2016, the missteps identified in the report could have been avoided. This report underscores the importance of ensuring that the FBI continues to do its job with the rigor, objectivity and professionalism that the American people deserve and rightly expect.”